Diabetes, high blood pressure combo puts more Americans at risk
Twice as many Americans now face the increased risk of death that comes from having both high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, a new study reports.
About 12% of the U.S. population had high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes at the same time in 2018, up from 6% in 1999, researchers reported recently in the journal Diabetes Care.
Having both conditions more than doubled the risk of dying from any cause and tripled the risk of death from heart disease, compared to those without either condition, researchers found.
"Even having co-existing prediabetes and elevated blood pressure was associated with up to 19% higher mortality risk, compared to having neither or either of these risk states," said senior researcher Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
"This suggests that the increase in risk of dying commences before levels of blood glucose and blood pressure progress to Type 2 diabetes and hypertension," she said in a news release.
For the study, researchers analyzed data for nearly 49,000 adults who participated in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2018. Conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, the survey includes health exams and lab tests to check the health of participants.
"A striking finding is that the burden of co-existing hypertension and type 2 diabetes nearly doubled over the study period," Makarem said. "Overall, about two-thirds of participants with diabetes also had hypertension, and about a quarter of adults with hypertension had concurrent diabetes."
About a third of people with both high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes died during a median follow-up of about nine years, researchers found. (Median means half died sooner, half later.)
By comparison, 20% of those with only type 2 diabetes and 22% of those with only high blood pressure died. Just 6% of people with neither chronic health problem died.
Overall, the study concluded that:
Compared to having high blood pressure only, having both conditions increased risk of premature death from any cause by 66% and heart-related death by 54%.
Compared to having type 2 diabetes only, having both increased risk of premature death by 25% and more than doubled the risk of heart-related death.
"This underscores the urgent need for public health strategies to effectively prevent and manage these conditions and reverse these adverse trends," Makarem said.
More information
The American Diabetes Association has more on diabetes and high blood pressure.
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