Early-onset diabetes presents risk to cardiac health

AORN Journal, Feb, 2004

Adults ages 18 to 44 who have type 2 diabetes are 14 times more likely to have a heart attack and up to 30 times more likely to have a stroke than their peers who do not have diabetes, according to an Oct 24, 2003, news release from Kaiser Permanente, Portland, Ore. In contrast, adults who become diabetic after age 45 are only four times more likely to have a heart attack and three times more likely to have a stroke than people of the same age who do not have diabetes. Young women account for nearly all of the increased risk for heart attack, but young men are twice as likely as young women to suffer a stroke. These findings from a study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research indicate that early-onset type diabetes may be more aggressive than usual-onset diabetes in terms of cardiac health. Type 2 diabetes is striking people at younger ages, parallel to the increase in obesity.

Researchers used electronic medical records to identify 7,844 individuals who were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 1996 and 1998. Of these individuals, 1,600 were diagnosed with early-onset diabetes and 6,244 with usual-onset diabetes. Both groups were compared with equal size groups of people of the same gender and age range who did not have diabetes to determine relative risks of heart attack, stroke, and other complications. All groups were followed for an average of four years to determine complication rates. Other study findings include that

* people with early- and usual-onset diabetes averaged the same length of time from diagnosis to requiring insulin (ie, 2.2 years);

* people with early-onset diabetes were significantly more obese than people with usual-onset diabetes;

* young adults with diabetes had higher average glucose readings at diagnosis than did older adults with diabetes; and

* young adults with diabetes were more than twice as likely than older adults with diabetes to develop macrovascular disease compared to their peers who did not have diabetes.

Younger Women With Diabetes at Highest Risk for Heart Attacks (news release, Portland, Ore: Kaiser Permanente, Oct 24, 2003) http://www.kaiserpermanente.org/locations/northwest/newsroom/research /nw102403.html (accessed 11 Nov 2003).