This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Total, CVD mortality rates increase in young adults with type 1 diabetes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Young adults with type 1 diabetes have an increased risk for total and cardiovascular disease mortality and hospitalized cardiovascular disease, with greater risks for women than men, study data show.
“CVD remains very high in young adults with childhood onset diabetes,” Trevor Orchard, MD, professor of epidemiology, medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and medical director of the nutrition lipid program, told Endocrine Today. “Young adults with 20 years history of type 1 diabetes should be treated as high risk for CVD and started on at least moderately intensive statin therapy.”
Orchard and colleagues evaluated data from the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications (EDC) Study on 502 adults younger than 45 years with long-standing, childhood-onset type 1 diabetes during the 1996 to 2012 follow-up period.
Follow-up was conducted on participants when they were aged 30 to 39 years (n = 391) and 40 to 44 years (n = 474) to determine mortality and CVD rates. Age- and sex-matched standardized mortality and incidence RRs were calculated using a background population from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
During the follow-up period, 6.6% of the 30- to 39-year-old age group experienced at least one CVD event and 4.3% died; 9.3% of the 40- to 44-year-old age group experienced at least one CVD event and 4.9% died.
Compared with the background population, the 30- to 39-year-old age group had a 4.6 times higher risk for total mortality, and the 40- to 44-year-old age group had a 5.3 times higher risk. The risk for mortality was greater in women compared with men. Compared with total mortality, there were greater relative increases for CVD mortality, also higher in women.
Compared with the background population, participants in the EDC study had a 7.8 times higher total CVD rate.
“Total mortality, CVD mortality and hospitalized CVD events remain significantly increased in this U.S. contemporary cohort of young adults [younger than] 45 years old with long-duration [type 1 diabetes] compared with the background population,” the researchers wrote. “As has been consistently demonstrated across international studies, the relative increase in risk is greater for women than for men. These findings support the need for more aggressive CVD risk-factor management, including statin therapy for young adults with long-standing [type 1 diabetes].” – by Amber Cox
For more information:
Trevor Orchard, MD, can be reached at tjo@pitt.edu.
Disclosure: Orchard reports consulting for Eli Lilly.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts