Update on Type 2 Diabetes as a Cardiovascular Disease Risk Equivalent

Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) from two- to four-fold. In our large Finnish population-based study published in 1998 subjects with medication for type 2 diabetes had as high a risk of fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) during the 7- year follow-up as non-diabetic subjects with a prior MI, suggesting that type 2 diabetes is a CVD equivalent. In another large study, including all 3.3 million residents of Denmark, subjects requiring glucose-lowering therapy exhibited a CVD risk similar to that of non-diabetic subjects with a prior MI. Subsequent studies have not systematically replicated aforementioned results. Some studies have supported the concept that type 2 diabetes is a CVD equivalent only in some subgroups, and many studies have reported negative findings. This is likely to be due to many differences across the studies published, for example ethnicity, gender, age and other demographic factors of the populations involved, study design, validation of diabetes status and CVD events, statistical analyses (adjustments for confounding factors), duration of diabetes, and treatment of hyperglycemia among diabetic participants. Varying results reflect the fact that not all diabetic patients are at a similar risk for CVD. Therefore, CVD risk assessment and the tailoring of preventive measures should be done individually, taking into consideration each patient’s long-term risk of developing cardiovascular events.