Having type 1 diabetes since childhood is linked to a higher risk for heart failure — inability to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs — in young adults, according to a new study published in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications.
Several previous studies have shown a connection between heart failure and diabetes. In people at high risk for heart failure, having diabetes — especially with poor blood glucose control — is linked to faster progression to heart failure. Having type 1 diabetes has also been linked to a much higher risk for heart failure in adults, with women at especially high risk for developing the condition.
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Luckily, the link between diabetes and heart failure also takes a positive direction — good diabetes management can reduce your risk for heart failure or heart failure progression, and certain drugs for type 2 diabetes have been shown to specifically help with heart failure outcomes. In fact, the type 2 diabetes drug Farxiga (dapagliflozin) — which is also approved separately as a heart failure treatment — has been shown to potentially add years of life for people with a common form of heart failure. The diabetes drug Jardiance (empagliflozin) has also been shown to help improve heart failure outcomes and improve quality of life in people without diabetes who have a common form of heart failure. Even if you don’t take a diabetes drug that has heart failure benefits, there may be steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing heart failure — including lifestyle measures as simple as drinking coffee.
For the latest study, researchers wanted to find out how common heart failure is in young adults with childhood-onset type 1 diabetes. They looked at data from the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study, which followed 655 participants for 25 years. None of the participants had heart failure at the beginning of the study, when their average age was 27 and their average diabetes duration was 19 years. Cases of heart failure were recorded during the follow-up period from a variety of sources, including self-reporting, a doctor’s diagnosis, hospitalization for heart failure, or heart failure listed as an underlying cause of death.
Young adults with longer duration of T1D at higher risk of heart failure
During the follow-up period, the overall incidence of heart failure was 3.4 per 1,000 person-years, and the incidence of “hard” heart failure leading to hospitalization or death was 1.8 per 1,000 person-years. Several factors were linked to a higher overall risk for heart failure, including a longer diabetes duration, ever having smoked, and higher blood triglyceride levels. Factors linked to a higher risk for “hard” heart failure included a longer diabetes duration, lower kidney function, and a higher white blood cell count.
The researchers concluded that young adults with a longer duration of type 1 diabetes had a high risk of developing heart failure, and that having more extensive microvascular complications of diabetes — such as retinopathy (eye disease) or kidney disease — was linked to a higher risk for heart failure regardless of a person’s diabetes duration.
Want to learn more about raising a child with type 1 diabetes? Read “The Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis,” “Type 1 Diabetes at School: What Personnel Need to Know,” and “Type 1 Diabetes and Sleepovers or Field Trips.”
Want to learn more about heart health? Read “Be Heart Smart: Know Your Numbers,” “Does Diabetes Hurt Your Heart?” “Fight Off Heart Disease With These Five Heart-Healthy Foods” and “Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease.”