Prevalence of micro- and macrovascular diabetes complications at time of type 2 diabetes diagnosis and associated clinical characteristics: A cross-sectional baseline study of 6958 patients in the Danish DD2 cohort

Aims

To examine the prevalence of micro- and macrovascular complications and their associated clinical characteristics at time of type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnosis.

Methods

We examined the prevalence of complications and associated clinical characteristics among 6958 newly diagnosed T2D patients enrolled in the prospective Danish Center for Strategic Research in T2D cohort during 2010–2016. We calculated age- and gender-adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) of complications using log-binomial and Poisson regression.

Results

In total, 35% (n = 2456) T2D patients had diabetic complications around diagnosis; 12% (n = 828) had microvascular complications, 17% (n = 1186) macrovascular complications, and 6% (n = 442) had both. HbA1c levels of ≥ 7% were associated with microvascular complications HbA1c 7%–8%; aPR: 1.35, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12–1.62] but not macrovascular complications aPR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.76–1.08]. High C-peptide ≥ 800 pmol/L was associated with macrovascular aPR 1.34, 95% CI: 1.00–1.80] but not microvascular aPR 0.97, 95% CI: 0.71–1.33] complications. Macrovascular complications were associated with male sex, age > 50 years, obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol, smoking, elevated CRP levels, and anti-hypertensive therapy. Microvascular complications were associated with high blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, and absence of lipid-lowering therapy.

Conclusions

One-third of patients with T2D had diabetes complications around time of diagnosis. Our findings suggest different pathophysiological mechanisms behind micro- and macrovascular complications.