Severe hypoglycaemia doubles the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes, concludes a new analysis.
The study
The international meta-analysis of observational studies covered six studies and included 903,510 patients with type 2 diabetes. The mean age range of patients was 60 to 67 years. The studies evaluated the association of severe hypoglycaemia with cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes and had a follow-up period of one to 5.6 years. Both odds ratio and hazard ratios were used to approximate the relative risk.
The results
Severe hypoglycaemia was associated with a two-fold increase in risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those who did not experience hypoglycaemia. During the follow-up period, 0.6% to 5.8% of participants experienced severe hypoglycaemia.
What this means for GPs
The researchers note that the results from their study ‘suggest that severe hypoglycaemia is associated with approximately twice the risk of cardiovascular disease’ and advise that ‘avoiding severe hypoglycaemia may be important to prevent cardiovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes’.
BMJ 2013; 347, Online July 2013
