Earlier Age at Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis Is Associated with Increased Genetic Risk for Cardiovascular Disease
Objective: We investigated genetic risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnosis age.
Research Design and Methods: We compared incident CVD events by T2D diagnosis age using UK Biobank (N=12,321) and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) cohort (N=1,165). Genetic risk was quantified using polygenic risk score (PRS).
Results: People with earlier T2D diagnosis had higher CVD risk. In UK Biobank, effect size of coronary artery disease (CAD) PRS on incident CAD was largest in people diagnosed of T2D at ages 30-39 (hazard ratio 2.25, 95% CI 1.56-3.26) and decreased for later-onset: 1.51 (1.30-1.75) at 40-49, 1.36 (1.24-1.50) at 50-59, and 1.30 (1.14-1.48) at 60-69 (Pinteraction=0.0031). Similar trend was observed in SNUH cohort. This increased genetic risk associated with earlier T2D diagnosis was largely mitigated by healthy lifestyle.
Conclusion: People with earlier T2D diagnosis have higher CAD genetic risk, and this could be used to tailor lifestyle intervention.
