New research presented at a major diabetes conference in Vienna shows that type 2 diabetes (T2D) makes people develop more chronic diseases faster than people without diabetes, especially during the early stages.
The study was led by Dr. Jie Zhang from the Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus in Denmark. It highlights the need for age-specific care plans for people with T2D.
T2D is expected to affect 1.3 billion people by 2050. It often comes with other health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney issues, and depression. These multiple long-term illnesses are known as multimorbidity.
Researchers studied data from over 500,000 people in the UK. About 9.5% of them developed T2D. The researchers then tracked how quickly these people developed other long-term illnesses.
They found that people with T2D were 60% more likely to develop a new chronic illness compared to people without T2D who already had the same number of illnesses.
For example, if two people each had two chronic conditions, the one with T2D had a 5.7% chance per year of getting another illness, compared to 3.5% for the person without T2D.
The study found people with T2D get sicker faster, especially in early stages of disease accumulation. The difference is biggest in people aged 40–55. In addition, early care and lifestyle changes in midlife may help slow down health decline.
The study only looked at factors like diet, education, and health at the beginning of the study. Also, people with diabetes often see doctors more, so more health problems might be noticed earlier. And since the study was not designed to find exact causes, more research is needed.
This study shows that type 2 diabetes speeds up how fast people get other long-term diseases. Acting early, especially in younger adults, could help people stay healthier longer.
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