Diabetes Mellitus, Fasting Glucose, and Risk of Cause-Specific Death

Hazard ratios for cause-specific death were calculated according to baseline diabetes status or fasting glucose level. In addition to its association with vascular disease, diabetes was associated with premature deaths from a number of diseases and disorders, independent of several major risk factors. The presence of diabetes mellitus approximately doubles the risk of a wide range of vascular diseases. 1 Evidence is also emerging that diabetes is associated with nonvascular conditions, including positive associations with certain cancers (e.g., liver cancer) and negative associations with other cancers (e.g., prostate cancer). 2 – 4 However, a joint consensus statement of the American Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society indicated that it is unclear whether such associations are direct (e.g., due to hyperglycemia) or indirect (e.g., due to diabetes as a marker of underlying biologic factors such as insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia that alter the risk of cancer) . . .