Risk factors for diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease The CVDs that accompany DM include angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, stroke, peripheral artery disease (PAD), and congestive heart failure (CHD). Consistently high blood glucose levels can lead to serious diseases associated with heart and blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves. However, during this time the body is already being damaged by excess blood glucose, and as a result many people are affected by complications even before diagnosed with type 2 DM. Many people remain undiagnosed because there are often few symptoms during the early years of type 2 DM or symptoms that do occur may not be recognized as being related to DM. This rise is associated with aging population, economic development, increasing urbanization, less healthy diets, and reduced physical activity 13. The number of people with type 2 DM is growing rapidly worldwide. Type 2 DM is the most common type and accounts for about 90–95% of all diagnosed cases of DM 1. Meanwhile, the intrauterine diabetic environment conveys a high risk for the development of DM and obesity in offspring, in addition to any effect that is transmitted genetically 12. Women with gestational DM have substantial future risk of developing type 2 DM, with a 7.4-fold increased risk and incidence estimates of 35–60% in the two decades following delivery 8–11. Gestational DM is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during the second or third trimester of pregnancy. Although type 1 DM is less common, it still accounts for ~5% of all diagnosed cases of DM 1. According to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, around 40 000 people are diagnosed with type 1 DM every year in the USA 7. The age-adjusted incidence of type 1 DM varies widely between populations from as low as 0.1 per 100 000 people per year in China to more than 40 in Finland 6. Type 1 DM is one of the most common chronic autoimmune disorders that typically manifests in early childhood and adolescence 5. The three main types of DM are type 1 DM, type 2 DM, and gestational DM. Trends in prevalence of diabetes, 1980–2014, by WHO region. China, India, and the USA remain the top three countries with the largest number of people with DM.
Regionally, the age-adjusted prevalence of DM is 3.8% in Africa, 7.3% in Europe, 10.7% in Middle East and North Africa, 11.5% in North America and Caribbean, 9.6% in South and Central America, 9.1% in Southeast Asia, and 8.8% in Western Pacific. Despite the high prevalence of diagnosed DM, as many as 193 million people representing close to half of all people with DM are unaware of their disease. The most recent data from the International Diabetes Federation indicated that an estimated 415 million adults aged 20–79 years worldwide have DM in 2015 and the number will project to 642 million in 2040, with the prevalence increasing from 8.8 to 10.4%.
WHO has announced an increasing prevalence of DM over the past few decades in different parts of the world ( Fig. Prevalence of diabetes mellitusĭM is a group of metabolic diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose resulting from problems in insulin production, insulin use, or both. The purpose of this paper is to review current DM epidemiology and its major complication of CVD, in respect of prevalence, risk factors, morbidity and mortality, economic burden, and current prevention guidelines. Besides the well-recognized microvascular complications of DM, such as nephropathy and retinopathy, there is a growing epidemic of macrovascular complications, including diseases of coronary arteries, peripheral arteries, and carotid vessels, particularly in the burgeoning type 2 DM populations 3. DM is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the most common cause of death among adults with DM 2. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the largest global health emergencies of the 21st century and the seventh leading cause of death in the USA in 2010 1.