Diabetes Duration Linked to Increasing Heart Failure Risk

This is a post hoc analysis of the ARIC study, with the objective to assess the association of diabetes duration with incident heart failure (HF). In this study, 9,734 participants from the ARIC study with mean age of 63 years without HF or coronary heart disease were included and their diabetes duration at Visit 4 was taken as baseline. After 22.5 years of follow up, it was found that, 1. Each 5-year increase in diabetes duration was associated with a 17% (95% CI: 11-22) relative increase in HF risk. 2. The HF and diabetes duration associations were stronger among those aged <65 years, those with HbA1C ≥7%, those with a body mass index ≥30 kg/m2, women, and Blacks (all P interactions <0.05). 3. Among the 168 study subjects (2% of the total study group) who had diabetes for at least 15 years, the subsequent incidence of heart failure was nearly threefold higher than among the 4,802 subjects (49% of the total study group) who never had diabetes or prediabetes. 4. People with prediabetes (32% of the study population) had a significant but modest increased rate of incident heart failure that was 16% higher than in control subjects who never developed diabetes. 5. People with diabetes for durations of 0-4.9 years, 5.0-9.9 years, or 10-14.9 years, had steadily increasing relative incident heart failure rates of 29%, 97%, and 210%, respectively, compared with controls. 6. The rate of incident heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) roughly matched the rate of incident heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Thus this analysis concluded that, Delaying diabetes onset may augment HF prevention efforts, and therapies to improve HF outcomes might target those with long diabetes duration. Disclaimer: Lupin makes no representation or warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any scientific information shared by the HCP on the ­­­STAR UPDATE podcast. You should not allow the contents of this to substitute for your own medical judgment, which you should exercise in evaluating the information on this website.