High risk for cardiovascular disease in Chinese type 2 diabetic patients with major depressionaA 7-year prospective analysis of the Hong Kong DiabetesRegistry

Background: Depression is known to be associated with premature mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 2diabetes, although there is a paucity of similar data in Chinese population. In this study, we examined the risk association of major depression with premature mortality and CVD in a hospital clinic-based cohort. Methods: In a prospective cohort of 7835 Hong Kong Chinese with type 2diabetes but without CVD at baseline, 153 patients were diagnosed with major depression by psychiatrists in public hospitals. After a median follow-up period of 7.4years, 827 patients died and 829 patients developed CVD mainly due to stroke (n=384). We used Cox proportional hazard regression to obtain the hazard ratio (HR, 95% confidence interval, CI) of depression for the risk of mortality andCVD. Results: Depressed patients were younger (51.6 versus 56.6 years, p