Type 1 Diabetes Carries High Stroke Risk
Death Rates From Stroke High for Men, Women Under Age 40
Jan. 16, 2003 -- If you have diabetes, your risk of stroke is high -- even if you're relatively young.
A large study -- the first of its kind -- looks at the risk of death by stroke in patients with type 1 diabetes based on age and sex.
The risk of death from stroke in people with type 1 diabetes was higher at all age groups than in people without diabetes, and that risk increased with age. The risk for men with type 1 was three times higher, and for women it was almost four and a half times higher.
Deaths from stroke also were higher in the diabetic population, and this risk is especially high in the young. Among 20- to 39-year-olds, stroke death risk was more than fivetimes higher for men and more than seven times higher for women than in people without diabetes, reports lead author Susan P. Lang, PhD, with the Institute of Cancer Research in Surrey, England.
Her study appears in this month's issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Lang's study included 23,751 men and women, all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, all being treated with insulin, and all under age 30 when the study began. Researchers tracked all these patients for an average of 17 years, recording deaths from stroke.
There were 1,437 deaths total -- 80 from stroke (40 in men, 40 in women).
Lang reports that 4% of deaths under age 40 and 8% of deaths over age 40 were from stroke -- much higher than in the general population.
They conclude by writing that type 1 diabetes is at least as great a risk factor for stroke death as type 2 diabetes.
Young Diabetics Have High Stroke Risk
Death Rates From Stroke High for Men, Women Under Age 40
Jan. 16, 2003 -- If you have diabetes, your risk of stroke is high -- even if you're relatively young.
A large study -- the first of its kind -- looks at the risk of death by stroke in patients with type 1 diabetes based on age and sex.
The risk of death from stroke in people with type 1 diabetes was higher at all age groups than in people without diabetes, and that risk increased with age. The risk for men with type 1 was three times higher, and for women it was almost four and a half times higher.
Deaths from stroke also were higher in the diabetic population, and this risk is especially high in the young. Among 20- to 39-year-olds, stroke death risk was more than fivetimes higher for men and more than seven times higher for women than in people without diabetes, reports lead author Susan P. Lang, PhD, with the Institute of Cancer Research in Surrey, England.
Her study appears in this month's issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Lang's study included 23,751 men and women, all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, all being treated with insulin, and all under age 30 when the study began. Researchers tracked all these patients for an average of 17 years, recording deaths from stroke.
There were 1,437 deaths total -- 80 from stroke (40 in men, 40 in women).
Lang reports that 4% of deaths under age 40 and 8% of deaths over age 40 were from stroke -- much higher than in the general population.
They conclude by writing that type 1 diabetes is at least as great a risk factor for stroke death as type 2 diabetes.