In a new study, researchers suggest that diabetes is still a dangerous health condition for people, despite the development of modern medicine.
The research was conducted by a team from the University of Colorado.
Diabetes is a condition that could raise blood sugar levels.
Previous studies have shown that diabetes is a big risk factor for cardiovascular disease and it is linked to a much higher risk of death from heart disease and stroke.
However, diabetes-related mortality has not been assessed in people receiving routine care in the United States.
In the current study, the team examined data of 963, 648 adults who received care in the US Veterans Affairs Healthcare System from 2002 to 2014. The average follow-up time was 8 years.
They analyzed the associations of diabetes and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) with death from all-cause and death from heart disease.
The researchers found that diabetes-related deaths were lower than they were in the 1980s and 1990s.
However, diabetes still had a major impact on higher death rates.
For example, the results showed that diabetes was linked to a 16% higher rate in death from any cause and an 18% higher rate in deaths from heart disease.
In addition, the HbA1c test reading linked to different death risk from heart disease.
An A1C level of 6% to 6.9% was linked to the lowest levels of death, regardless of age or heart disease history.
The findings suggest that diabetes death risk has been reduced in the past three decades.
Nevertheless, it is still a very dangerous health condition and could increase death risk in patients.
The team also suggests that HbA1c could be an effective predictor of outcomes even if causality cannot be inferred.
On the other hand, treatment should be determined just based on a patient’s age, because age alone isn’t that informative.
The future work will examine the best methods to lower heart disease risk with newer diabetes medications.
Currently, about 26 million American adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, and an additional 92 million have prediabetes.
But many people do not realize that diabetes could increase their risk of heart disease and stroke. The team suggests that controlling blood sugar control is very important.
The lead author of the study is Dr. Sridharan Raghavan.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Copyright © 2019 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
Further reading: Journal of the American Heart Association.
