Early Type 1 Diabetes May Shorten Women’s Lives by 18 Years - Aug 2018

Unable to find the referenced study


DG:News

Women who develop type 1 diabetes before age 10 die an average of nearly 18 years earlier than women who do not have diabetes, according to a study published in The Lancet. Men in the corresponding situation lose almost 14 years of life.
The lives of patients diagnosed at age 26 to 30 are shortened by an average of 10 years.

“These are disappointing and previously unknown figures,” said Araz Rawshani, MD, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. “The study suggests that we must make an even greater effort to aggressively treat patients diagnosed at an early age to reduce the risk of complications and premature death.”

The research is based on extensive material from the Swedish National Diabetes Register, which has monitored 27,195 patients with type 1 diabetes for an average of 10 years. The group was compared with 135,178 controls from the general population who did not have diabetes, maintaining the same distribution regarding gender, age, and county of residence.

While researchers already knew that type 1 diabetes is associated with a lower life expectancy, until now it was unclear whether and how much gender and age at onset of illness affect both life expectancy and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study found that patients who developed type 1 diabetes before age 10 had hazard ratios of 4.11 for all-cause mortality, 7.38 for cardiovascular mortality, 3.96 for non-cardiovascular mortality, 11.44 for cardiovascular disease, 30.50 for coronary heart disease, 30.95 for acute myocardial infarction, 6.45 for stroke, 12.90 for heart failure, and 1.17 for atrial fibrillation.

Corresponding hazard ratios for individuals who developed type 1 diabetes at age 26 to 30 were

  • 2.83 for all-cause mortality,
  • 3.64 for cardiovascular mortality,
  • 2.78 for non-cardiovascular mortality,
  • 3.85 for cardiovascular disease,
  • 6.08 for coronary heart disease,
  • 5.77 for acute myocardial infarction,
  • 3.22 for stroke,
  • 5.07 for heart failure, and
  • 1.18 for atrial fibrillation.

One of the highest increases in risk noted in the study involved myocardial infarctions in women who developed type 1 diabetes before age 10.
The risk for these women is 90 times higher than for controls without diabetes.

“The study opens up the potential for individualised care,” said Dr. Rawshani. “We know with certainty that if we maintain good blood sugar control in these patients, we can lower the risk of cardiovascular damage. This makes it important to carefully consider both evidence-based medications and modern technological aids for blood sugar measurements and insulin administration in patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at an early age.”

“At the same time, the study must also be viewed in the light of the tremendous progress that has been made in the past few decades,” he concluded. “Management of type 1 diabetes is nowadays highly sophisticated, with modern tools for glucose monitoring, delivery of insulin, and management of cardiovascular risk factors. Those who live with diabetes today, and those who will acquire the disease, will enjoy longer and healthier lives in the years to come.”

Reference: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31506-X


Pages listed in BOTH of the VitaminDWiki categories Diabetes and Infant/Child - (a proxy for Type 1)

T1 diabetes OR type1 diabetes in title 107 as of April 2018

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