Diabetes subgroups linked to all-cause, cancer-, CVD-related mortality

Among the different subgroups of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), the mild age-related diabetes (MARD) subgroup were more likely to have a higher cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality than the mild obesity-related diabetes (MOD) subgroup, according to a study. Rates of all-cause and cancer-related mortality are comparable across the different DM subgroups.

“In addition, compared to the MARD subgroup, the severe autoimmune diabetes (SAID) and severe insulin-deficient diabetes (SIDD) subgroups had a higher retinopathy risk, but there was no difference in nephropathy among the subgroups,” the authors said.

This study included participants aged ≥20 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) data set. The authors evaluated the risks of all-cause and cause-specific (CVD and cancer) mortality among five previously defined DM subgroups, namely SAID, SIDD, severe insulin-resistant diabetes (SIRD), MOD, and MARD.

Overall, 712 patients participated in the study, with a median follow-up time of 12.71 years. The number of deaths in the SAID, SIDD, SIRD, MOD, and MARD subgroups was 50, 75, 64, seven, and 18, respectively, while that of CVD-related deaths was 29, 30, 26, two, and 11, respectively.

Compared to MOD, the adjusted hazard ratios of CVD-related deaths for SAID, SIDD, SIRD, and MARD were 3.23 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.77–13.61), 2.87 (95 percent CI, 0.68–12.06), 2.23 (95 percent CI, 0.53–9.50), and 4.75 (95 percent CI, 1.05–21.59; p=0.04), respectively.

Additionally, the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for retinopathy in SAID and SIDD, compared to MARD, were 2.38 (95 percent CI, 1.13–5.01; p=0.02) and 3.34 (95 percent CI, 1.17–6.88; p=0.001), respectively. The ORs for nephropathy did not reach statistical significance.