Cardiovascular risk profile of early and later onset type 2 diabetes

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile between early (<40 years of age) and later (>40 years of age) onset type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients without prior history of CVD.A cross‐sectional study was undertaken on hospital‐based patients identified from the diabetes register. T2DM patients without prior history of CVD were included for analysis. The CVD risk profile as defined by obesity, dyslipidaemia and hypertension was compared between early and later onset T2DM patients. The proportion of lipid and blood pressure lowering treatment in each group was also determined.In all, 1057 T2DM patients were identified of whom 67 (6.3%) and 990 (93.7%) were aged below and above 40 years, respectively. Sixty‐seven and 667 patients did not have CVD complications in the early and later onset cohorts, respectively. Despite being ∼three decades younger with a shorter duration of diabetes, early onset patients had poorer glycaemic control compared to the later onset cohort. A significant proportion of these young diabetic patients had hypertension (∼80%) and adverse dyslipidaemic profile (∼80%) with higher triglyceride and lower HDL. Morbid obesity (body mass index >40) was more common among the early onset cohort (∼25%). Significantly less early onset patients were treated with statin and anti‐hypertensive medications particularly among female subjects.It was concluded that, despite having an adverse CVD risk profile, early onset patients with T2DM were less likely to receive cardio‐protective treatment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons.