Diabetes Adds 15 Years

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- People with diabetes can expect to develop cardiovascular disease about 15 years sooner than people without the condition.

That's the key finding from Canadian researchers who studied a large population of people in Ontario, assessing heart disease risks among those with and without diabetes. Among those who had heart attacks or strokes, or who died from any cause, men with diabetes entered the high risk category at about age 48. Women were about 54. When researchers looked at outcomes for people who also required cardiovascular procedures such as bypass surgery or revascularization, the high-risk ages dropped to about 41 for men and 48 for women.

The investigators believe these results suggest cardiovascular risk factors should be treated more aggressively in diabetic patients in their 40s, noting statins to lower cholesterol, aspirin therapy, and ACE-inhibitors may confer some benefit. However, treatment in younger diabetic patients, who did not appear to be at increased risk for heart disease in this study, requires additional evaluation.

"Diabetes confers an equivalent risk to aging 15 years," write the authors. "Age should be taken into account in targeting of risk reduction in people with diabetes."

People with diabetes are about four-times more likely than those without the condition to suffer from cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease accounts for much of the increased mortality seen in the diabetic population.

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SOURCE: The Lancet, 2006;368:29-36