News Article
Obesity Plus Diabetes Sharply Increases Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Obese men and women who have diabetes also face an extraordinarily high risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a retrospective study.
"Our findings demonstrate that the lifetime risk of CVD is higher among individuals with both obesity and diabetes ... approaching 80% in obese women and nearly 90% in obese men," Dr. Caroline S. Fox and her colleagues reported in the August issue of Diabetes Care.
The researchers based their conclusions on data extracted from the Framingham Heart Study. They calculated 10-, 20-, and 30-year (lifetime) risk of developing cardiovascular disease for patients with and without diabetes, and then stratified those risks by body mass index and gender.
Overall, the lifetime risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the original cohort was 39% in women and 55% in men. The risk was greater in patients with diabetes than in those without (men, 78% vs. 55%; women, 67% vs. 38%), wrote Dr. Fox of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and her associates (Diabetes Care 2008;31:1582-4).
When the lifetime rates were stratified by body mass index, cardiovascular disease risk was higher in obese patients. Among women without diabetes, the lifetime risk in obese subjects was 48%, compared with 34% in those of normal weight. Among women with diabetes, the risk of CVD was 79% for obese patients and 55% for those of normal weight.
Among men without diabetes, the lifetime risk also was greater in obese subjects than in those of normal weight (67% vs. 49%). Among men with diabetes, the risk of CVD was 87% for obese subjects and 79% for those of normal weight.
"Given the recent increases in both the prevalence and incidence of diabetes, projections for the burden of diabetes in the United States by 2050 have increased to 48.3 million cases. We have already demonstrated that the attributable risk of cardiovascular disease due to diabetes has increased. This trend may continue to worsen if current trajectories do not change," the authors said.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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