Cardiovascular risk and all-cause mortality attributable to diabetes: Tehran lipid and glucose study

To quantify the burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and all-cause mortality attributable to diabetes.

Data on an 8.6-yr follow-up of 6331 participants (2741 men), free of CVD at baseline, were analyzed to determine the burden of CVD and all-cause mortality attributable to self-reported and screen-detected diabetes mellitus (SRDM and SDDM, respectively). Risks of events of interest were separately assessed for women and men using Cox-proportional-hazard model.

The mean age at baseline was 47 yr with 997 (15.7%) of participants having diabetes (men 14.8%, women 16.5%). SRDM and SDDM prevailed in 9.7% (men 9.2, women 10.2%) and 6.0% of participants (men 5.7, women 6.3%), respectively. During follow up (52,404 person-yr), we observed 447 incident cases of CVD [387 had coronary heart disease (CHD)] and 209 deaths. Among men, participants with SDDM had increased relative hazard for all-cause mortality translated to a population attributable risk fraction (PAF) of 10.1%. Among women, SDDM was associated with CVD and CHD but not with all-cause mortality; so that 9.3% and 8.8% of CVD and CHD events were respectively attributable to the SDDM. If SRDM had been eliminated from the population, the incidences of CVD, CHD, and death would have decreased by 10.5, 9.5, and 17.3% in men; and 22.0, 24.2, and 17.8% in women, respectively.

SDDM and SRDM have high PAF for all-cause mortality and CVD. Besides diabetes treatment and prevention, screening to detect undiagnosed diabetes should warrant high priority among the public health strategies to lower the incidence of CVD and mortality.