Meta-analysis reveals higher cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality risks in populations with prediabetes, indicating health risks emerge even with modest glucose elevations.
Key Points
To assess the associations between different clinical definitions of prediabetes and the risks of composite cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and all-cause mortality.
Meta-analysis of 53 prospective cohort studies comprising 1,611,339 participants from general populations with a median follow-up of 9.5 years.
Compared with normoglycaemia, prediabetes increased composite cardiovascular disease risk (RR 1.13 for IFG-ADA, 1.26 for IFG-WHO, 1.30 for IGT) and all-cause mortality (RR 1.13 for IFG-ADA, 1.13 for IFG-WHO, 1.32 for IGT).
Prediabetes also increased risks of coronary heart disease (RR 1.10 for IFG-ADA, 1.18 for IFG-WHO, 1.20 for IGT) and stroke (RR 1.06, 1.17, and 1.20, respectively).
Elevated HbA1c increased the risk of composite cardiovascular disease (RR 1.21 for ADA, 1.25 for NICE) and coronary heart disease (RR 1.15 and 1.28, respectively), but showed no significant association with stroke or all-cause mortality.