News Release

Two-fold higher mortality from cardiovascular disease in older people with diabetes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Diabetes is on the rise, likely to affect twice as many people worldwide in 2030 as today, and a serious global health problem, because, despite available treatments, most people with diabetes develop serious long-term health problems. One of these is cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in the US and other developed countries. A new study by Joshua Barzilay (Kaiser Permanente of Georgia and Emory University) and colleagues, published in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine, finds that older people with diabetes are much more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than their non-diabetic peers.

The researchers studied a randomly selected group of nearly 6000 individuals over 65, of whom about 9% were known to have diabetes and were using oral drugs or insulin injections to control their blood sugar. They followed the participants for an average of 11 years. During that period, over 40% of the individuals died, and approximately 50-60% of the deaths were attributable to cardiovascular causes. Compared to those without diabetes, and after adjusting for many factors known to affect cardiovascular disease risk such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and cholesterol levels, participants with diabetes were found to be twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease. The risk was particularly high for patients treated with insulin injections.

As Andre Pascal Kengner and Anushka Patel (from the University of Sydney) point out in an accompanying Perspective article, the finding that older adults with diabetes are at very high absolute risk of death from cardiovascular events makes it clear that strategies aimed at reducing those risks in elderly diabetic patients should be pursued aggressively.

###

EMBARGO: MONDAY, 16 October, 5 P.M. PDT

PLEASE MENTION THE OPEN-ACCESS JOURNAL PLoS MEDICINE (www.plosmedicine.org) AS THE SOURCE FOR THESE ARTICLES AND PROVIDE A LINK TO THE FREELY-AVAILABLE TEXT. THANK YOU.

All works published in PLoS Medicine are open access. Everything is immediately available without cost to anyone, anywhere--to read, download, redistribute, include in databases, and otherwise use--subject only to the condition that the original authorship is properly attributed. Copyright is retained by the authors. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Citation: Kronmal RA, Barzilay JI, Smith NL, Psaty BM, Kuller LH, et al. (2006) Mortality in pharmacologically treated older adults with diabetes: The cardiovascular health study 1989–2001. PLoS Med 3(10): e400.

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE

VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030400

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-03-10-barzilay.pdf

CONTACT: Joshua Barzilay

Kaiser Permanente
Endocrinology
200 Crescent Center Parkway
Tucker, GA 30084 United States of America
+1 770 496 3648
+1 770 496 3442 (fax)
joshua.barzilay@kp.org

Related PLoS Medicine Perspectives article:

Citation: Kengne AP, Patel A (2006) How important is diabetes as a risk factor for cardiovascular and other diseases in older adults? PLoS Med 3(10): e424.

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE

VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030424

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-03-10-patel.pdf

CONTACT:

Anushka Patel
University of Sydney
The George Institute For International Health
PO Box M201
Missenden Road
Sydney, NSW 2050 Australia
apatel@george.org.au

About PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine is an open access, freely available international medical journal. It publishes original research that enhances our understanding of human health and disease, together with commentary and analysis of important global health issues. For more information, visit http://www.plosmedicine.org

About the Public Library of Science

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.