Prediabetes can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke and death

According to a new study, there may be possible links between prediabetes and the risk of heart disease and death. Read on to know more.

Prediabetes is the stage when your blood sugar levels are too high. But yet, it is not high enough to be called diabetes. People who develop type 2 diabetes usually have prediabetes first. If you have prediabetes, you are at much higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Moreover, prediabetes also puts you at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death. This is true for people even without a history of heart disease. According to scientists, more than 470 million people across the world will have prediabetes by 2030 and up to 70 per cent of them will go on to develop type 2 diabetes.

Now, a review in published in The BMJ journal looks at possible links between this condition and the risk of heart disease and death. Till now, though there have been many studies on the subject, results have been inconsistent. However, the findings of the said study draw a definite link between the two.

Prediabetes increases risk of cardiovascular disease by 15 per cent

According to researchers from Southern Medical University in China, screening and proper management of prediabetes may help in primary prevention as well as secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. For the purpose of the study, they analysed the results of 129 studies on associations between prediabetes and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death from other causes in people with and without a history of heart disease. They looked at over 10 million individuals and also took into account factors like age, sex, ethnicity, and lifestyle. At the end of the study, they found that, in the general population, prediabetes was associated with a 13 per cent increased risk of all cause mortality and a 15 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular disease, over an average follow-up time of around 10 years. It also carried a higher risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

It increases mortality by 37 per cent

According to researchers, this is equal to 7 extra deaths per 10,000 person years and almost 9 extra cases of cardiovascular disease per 10,000 person years in the general population, compared with people with normal blood sugar levels. In patients with a history of heart disease, prediabetes was associated with a 36% increased risk of all cause mortality and a 37% increased risk of cardiovascular disease, over an average follow-up time of around 3 years. However, researchers say that no difference was seen for the risk of stroke. In absolute terms, this equates to 66 extra deaths per 10,000 person years and almost 190 extra cases of cardiovascular disease per 10,000 person years, compared with normal blood sugar levels.

Impaired glucose tolerance is also a risk

The researchers also found that impaired glucose tolerance (higher than normal blood sugar levels after eating) carried a higher risk of all cause mortality, coronary heart disease and stroke than impaired fasting glucose (higher than normal blood sugar levels after a period of fasting). But, researchers did not have access to individual participants' data and, hence, they cannot rule out the possibility that some of the observed risks may have been due to unmeasured factors.

(With inputs from Agencies)