A competing risk analysis of sequential complication development in Asian type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

This retrospective cohort study investigated the progression risk of sequential complication in Asian type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients using the Taiwan Pay-for-Performance Diabetes Registry and claim data from November 2003 to February 2009. 226,310 adult T2D patients without complication were followed from diagnosis to complications, including myocardial infarction (MI), other ischemic heart disease (IHD), congestive heart failure (CHF), stroke, chronic kidney disease (CKD), retinopathy, amputation, death or to the end of study. Cumulative incidences (CIs) of first and second complications were analyzed in 30 and 4 years using the cumulative incidence competing risk method. IHD (29.8%), CKD (24.5%) and stroke (16.0%) are the most common first complications. The further development of T2D complications depends on a patient’s existing complication profiles. Patients who initially developed cardiovascular complications had a higher risk (9.2% to 24.4%) of developing IHD or CKD, respectively. All-cause mortality was the most likely consequence for patients with a prior MI (12.0%), so as stroke in patients with a prior MI (10.8%) or IHD (8.9%). Patients with CKD had higher risk of developing IHD (16.3%), stroke (8.9%) and all-cause mortality (8.7%) than end-stage renal disease (4.0%). Following an amputation, patients had a considerable risk of all-cause mortality (42.1%).