Patients with childhood form of diabetes more at risk of heart failure
MEN and women with the childhood form of diabetes are more likely to die of heart failure than patients with type 2 forms of the condition, a break-through Glasgow study found.
However, the research found patients with type 1 forms of the condition are less likely to get the drugs that could help prevent cardiovascular disease and potentially save their life.
The study, led by the University of Glasgow, found that incidents of heart failure was around two-fold higher in patients with both type of diabetes.
However, men and women with Type 1 diabetes – which usually develops in childhood – were more likely to die within 30 days of being admitted to hospital.
Compared to women without diabetes, women with type 1 had around a 2.5-fold higher risk of having a heart failure admission which resulted in death within 30-days.
For the equivalent comparison in men, there was almost a 4-fold difference in risk.
Those with type 1, were prescribed fewer drugs that are used to treat and prevent heart failure, than patients with type 3 – which commonly affects the over 40s and is linked to obesity – or those without the condition.
The research, which examined health data over a ten year period from January 2004 to December 2013, looked at the incidence rate for heart failure hospitalisation and any deaths that resulted for 30 days following that admittance to hospital.
Researchers said more work is now needed to see if people with type 1 diabetes would benefit from greater use of drugs for preventing cardiovascular disease.
Dr David McAllister, lead author of the study, said: “Heart failure incidence has fallen over time for people with and without diabetes, but it is still around two times higher in people with diabetes than in people without diabetes.
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“Our findings suggest that heart failure is an underrecognised and important complication in diabetes, particularly for type 1 disease.”
The paper, ‘Incidence of hospitalisation for heart failure and case-fatality among 3.25 million people with and without diabetes’ is published in Circulation and was carried out on behalf of the Scottish Diabetes Network.