Nationwide Trends in Cardiac Risk and Mortality in Patients With Incident Type 2 Diabetes: A Danish Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE Trends in cardiac risk and death have not been examined in patients with incident type 2 diabetes and no prior cardiovascular disease. Therefore, we aimed to examine trends in cardiac risk and death in relation to the use of prophylactic cardiovascular medications in patients with incident type 2 diabetes without prior cardiovascular disease. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In this population-based cohort study, we included patients with incident type 2 diabetes between 1996 and 2011 through national health registries. Each patient was matched by age and sex with up to five individuals without diabetes from the general population. All individuals were followed for 7 years. RESULTS We identified 209,311 patients with incident diabetes. From 1996-1999 to 2008-2011, the 7-year risk of myocardial infarction decreased from 6.9 to 2.8% (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.39 [95% CI 0.37-0.42]), cardiac death from 7.1 to 1.6% (aHR 0.23 [95% CI 0.21-0.24]), and all-cause death from 28.9 to 16.8% (aHR 0.68 [95% CI 0.66-0.69]). Compared with the general population, 7-year risk differences decreased from 3.3 to 0.8% for myocardial infarction, from 2.7 to 0.5% for cardiac death, and from 10.6 to 6.0% for all-cause death. Use of cardiovascular medications within +/- 1 year of diabetes diagnosis, especially statins (5% of users in 1996-1999 vs. 60% in 2008-2011), increased during the study period. CONCLUSIONS From 1996 to 2011, Danish patients with incident type 2 diabetes and no prior cardiovascular disease experienced major reductions in cardiac risk and mortality. The risk reductions coincided with increased use of prophylactic cardiovascular medications.