Well-controlled diabetes has the potential to help stall the progression of early-stage heart failure to dangerous, late-stage disease, according to researchers.
Diabetes is a common comorbidity in nursing home residents and is known to increase the risk of heart failure. A study of the 2016 nursing home Minimum Data Set found that among residents with diabetes, 26% had heart failure.
Early diagnosis of heart failure and treatment is key to preventing disease progression, which can lead to severe health problems and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Investigators examined data from the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Study participants with uncontrolled diabetes were more likely to have advancing heart failure in the early stages of the disease, they found.
Participants with no heart structural damage and uncontrolled diabetes were 1.5 times more likely to develop severe or overt heart failure, while those in stage B, with structural heart damage but who had yet to show symptoms of disease were 1.8 times more likely. Moreover, participants in stage B with uncontrolled diabetes developed overt heart failure at a younger age than their peers with controlled diabetes (80 vs. 83 years) and their peers with no diabetes (82 years).
Older adults with co-occurring diabetes and stage A or B heart failure would benefit from preventive therapies, the researchers wrote. Along with diabetes control, this includes lifestyle modification and medication, they said.
“There are three to four times more individuals with preclinical heart failure than with overt heart failure; many lives can be prolonged by addressing diabetes in those early stages,” the authors concluded.
Full findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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