Middle-aged individuals with diabetes have high long-term absolute risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), a new study found. Researchers aimed to estimate the long-term absolute risk for CVD according to fasting glucose (FG) levels below the threshold of diabetes.

They pooled data from 7 observational cohorts of US black and white men and women followed from 1960 to 2015 and categorized FG as follows: <5.0, 5.0‒5.5, 5.6‒6.2, 6.3‒6.9 mmol/L, and diabetes (FG ≥7.0 mmol/L or use of diabetes medications). They found:

• The study included 19,630 individuals (6,197 blacks and 11,015 women) without a prior CVD event.
• Risk for CVD through aged 85 years ranged from 15.3% to 38.6% among women and from 21.5% to 47.7% among men.
• An FG of 6.3‒6.9 mmol/L was associated with higher long-term CVD risk vs the lowest FG among men, but not women.
• Increases in glucose during midlife with conversion to diabetes were associated with higher CV risk than when increasing glucose below the diabetes threshold.