Influence of Lifestyle on Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Background: Evidence is limited regarding the impact of healthy lifestyle practices on the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events among patients with diabetes.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of an overall healthy lifestyle, defined by eating a high-quality diet (top two-fifths of Alternative Healthy Eating Index), nonsmoking, engaging in moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (≥150 min/week), and drinking alcohol in moderation (5 to 15 g/day for women and 5 to 30 g/day for men), with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD mortality among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods: This prospective analysis included 11,527 participants with T2D diagnosed during follow-up (8,970 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 2,557 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study), who were free of CVD and cancer at the time of diabetes diagnosis. Diet and lifestyle factors before and after T2D diagnosis were repeatedly assessed every 2 to 4 years.

Results: There were 2,311 incident CVD cases and 858 CVD deaths during an average of 13.3 years of follow-up. After multivariate adjustment of covariates, the low-risk lifestyle factors after diabetes diagnosis were each associated with a lower risk of CVD incidence and CVD mortality. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios for participants with 3 or more low-risk lifestyle factors compared with 0 were 0.48 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.40 to 0.59) for total CVD incidence, 0.53 (95% CI: 0.42 to 0.66) for incidence of coronary heart disease, 0.33 (95% CI: 0.21 to 0.51) for stroke incidence, and 0.32 (95% CI: 0.22 to 0.47) for CVD mortality (all p trend <0.001). The population-attributable risk for poor adherence to the overall healthy lifestyle (<3 low-risk factors) was 40.9% (95% CI: 28.5% to 52.0%) for CVD mortality. In addition, greater improvements in healthy lifestyle factors from pre-diabetes to post-diabetes diagnosis were also significantly associated with a lower risk of CVD incidence and CVD mortality. For each number increment in low-risk lifestyle factors there was a 14% lower risk of incident total CVD, a 12% lower risk of coronary heart disease, a 21% lower risk of stroke, and a 27% lower risk of CVD mortality (all p < 0.001). Similar results were observed when analyses were stratified by diabetes duration, sex/cohort, body mass index at diabetes diagnosis, smoking status, and lifestyle factors before diabetes diagnosis.

Conclusions: Greater adherence to an overall healthy lifestyle is associated with a substantially lower risk of CVD incidence and CVD mortality among adults with T2D. These findings further support the tremendous benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle in reducing the subsequent burden of cardiovascular complications in patients with T2D.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease; cohort study; diabetic patients; diet; healthy lifestyle.