09 Jul Simultaneous Risk Factors Markedly Increase Heart Disease Death Rates

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio FESC FAHA
University Lecturer | University of Cambridge
Director | MPhil in Public Health, University of Cambridge
Deputy Director | NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Donor Health and Genomics
Honorary Consultant | NHS Blood and Transplant
Department of Public Health and Primary Care
Strangeways Research Laboratory
Cambridge, UK

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Previous research as mainly focused on individual with one cardiometabolic condition alone and, despite it could be expected that having more than one condition poses a greater risk, this is the first study that is able to precisely quantify how much is worst. Furthermore, given that the conditions we study (diabetes, heart attack, and stroke) share several risk factors, it could be expected that the combination of these will not be  multiplicative. We were somewhat surprised to find that participants who had 1 condition had about twice the rate of death; 2 conditions, about 4 times the rate of death; and all 3 conditions, about 8 times the rate of death. We  estimated that at the age of 60 years, men with any two of the cardiometabolic conditions studied would on average have 12 years of reduced life expectancy, and men with all three conditions would have 14 years of reduced life expectancy. For women at the age of 60 years, the corresponding estimates were 13 years and 16 years. The figures were even more dramatic for patients at a younger age. At the age of 40 years, men with all three cardiometabolic conditions would on average have 23 years of reduced life expectancy; for women at the same age, the corresponding estimate was 20 years.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: These results are of main use for clinicians and policy makers, and emphasize for example the importance of measures to prevent cardiovascular disease in people who already have diabetes, and, conversely, to avert diabetes in people who already have cardiovascular disease.  However, at the same time, we must not lose sight of tackling these serious conditions within the wider population.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Future research should focused on the wider issues of co-morbidities in an aging population.

Citation:

 
Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio FESC FAHA, & University Lecturer | University of Cambridge (2015). Simultaneous Risk Factors Markedly Increase Heart Disease Death Rates 

Last Updated on July 9, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD