Cardiovascular disease down in diabetics

Experts suspect this finding may be the result of more aggressive medical care but expressed caution because not all reasons for this trend may be healthy.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Nov. 26, 2007.

The percentage of adults with diabetes who say they also have cardiovascular disease has declined since 1997, according to a paper published in the Nov. 2 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Researchers analyzed data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Interview Survey and found that the rate of CVD in this patient population, which is estimated to include 21 million people, had declined from 36.6% in 1997 to 32.5% in 2005.

"These findings are certainly encouraging. We need to continue our efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease with renewed energy and commitment now that we're seeing this trend," said Nilka Rios Burrows, MPH, lead author and an epidemiologist at the CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation.

Physicians and public health policymakers hope that this observation represents a true reduction in the disease that causes 65% of the deaths among patients with diabetes.

If it is real, these numbers may indicate that all the prescriptions for drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol as well as recommendations for aspirin therapy -- both of which are included in so many guidelines -- are starting to pay off.

"Doctors are being more proactive in managing diabetes. Patients are getting that it's a serious condition and that they need to take care of it," said John Buse, MD, PhD, the American Diabetes Assn.'s president for medicine and science.

The finding also may be the result of better self-care on the part of patients. Another paper in the same MMWR analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and concluded that 63.4% of all adults with diabetes checked their blood sugar at least once daily in 2005. This tally represented a significant increase from the 40.6% found in 1997 and exceeded the Healthy People 2010 target of 61%.