Effects of diabetes and level of glycemia on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. The San Antonio Heart Study.
OBJECTIVE
Although the level of hyperglycemia is clearly a risk factor for microvascular complications in diabetic patients, its role in macrovascular complications remains controversial. We followed 4,875 subjects (65% Mexican-American) for 7-8 years to investigate the effects of diabetes and hyperglycemia on all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. These end points were also analyzed according to quartiles of baseline fasting plasma glucose among diabetic participants.


METHODS
The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the relative risks (RRs) for all-cause and CVD mortality.


RESULTS
Diabetes was significantly associated with increased all-cause mortality (RR [95% CI] = 2.1 [1.3-3.5] in men; 3.2 [1.9-5.4] in women) and increased CVD mortality (3.2 [1.4-7.1] in men; 8.5 [2.8-25.2] in women). Among diabetic subjects, those in quartile 4 had a 4.2-fold greater risk of all-cause mortality (P < 0.001) and a 4.7-fold greater risk of CVD mortality (P = 0.01) than those in quartiles 1 and 2 combined. After further adjustment for other potential risk factors, subjects in quartile 4 had a 4.9-fold greater risk of all-cause mortality and a 4.9-fold greater risk of CVD mortality than those in quartiles 1 and 2. In addition, hypertension, current smoking, and cholesterol > 6.2 mmol/l were significant predictors of CVD mortality using Cox models.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that diabetes is a predictor of both all-cause and CVD mortality in the general population and that both hyperglycemia and common CVD risk factors are important predictors of all-cause and CVD mortality in diabetic subjects.
Wei
M
M
Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Gaskill
S P
SP
Haffner
S M
SM
Stern
M P
MP
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D004522:Educational Status; D005215:Fasting; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017566:Microvascular Angina / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
D001786:Blood Glucose; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D014280:Triglycerides