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A study conducted by an international team of researchers reveals that an individual diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 30 could see their life expectancy reduced by up to 14 years. Even those who develop the condition later in life, at around 50 years of age, might experience a decrease in life expectancy of up to six years, based on an analysis of data from 19 high-income countries. Published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, these findings underscore the critical need for interventions to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, particularly as its occurrence among younger adults is on the rise worldwide.
Factors such as escalating levels of obesity, unhealthy dietary habits, and increased sedentary behavior are contributing to a rapid surge in type 2 diabetes cases globally. In 2021, an estimated 537 million adults worldwide were living with diabetes, and a growing number of them were being diagnosed at younger ages.
Type 2 diabetes heightens the risk of various complications, including heart attacks, strokes, kidney issues, and cancer. While previous estimations indicated that adults with type 2 diabetes tend to pass away approximately six years earlier than those without the condition, there was uncertainty regarding how this reduction in life expectancy varied based on the age at diagnosis.
To address this question, researchers, led by teams from the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, examined data from two major international studies—the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration and UK Biobank—comprising a total of 1.5 million individuals.
The study found that the earlier an individual was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the greater the reduction in their life expectancy. On average, each decade of earlier diagnosis of diabetes was associated with about four years of diminished life expectancy. When using data from the U.S. population, it was estimated that individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at ages 30, 40, and 50 years died, on average, about 14, 10, and 6 years earlier, respectively, than individuals without the condition. These estimates were slightly higher in women (16, 11, and 7 years, respectively) than in men (14, 9, and 5 years, respectively).
Similar results were found in analyses using EU data, with corresponding estimates being about 13, 9, or 5 years earlier death on average.
Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio from the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute (VPD-HLRI), University of Cambridge, emphasized, “Type 2 diabetes used to be seen as a disease that affected older adults, but we’re increasingly seeing people diagnosed earlier in life. As we’ve shown, this means they are at risk of a much shorter life expectancy than they would otherwise have.”
Dr. Stephen Kaptoge, also from the VPD-HLRI, added, “Type 2 diabetes can be prevented if those at greatest risk can be identified and offered support—whether that’s to make changes to their behavior or to provide medication to lower their risk. But there are also structural changes that we as a society should be pursuing, including relating to food manufacturing, changes to the built environment to encourage more physical activity, and so on. Given the impact type 2 diabetes will have on people’s lives, preventing—or at least delaying the onset—of the condition should be an urgent priority.”
The researchers identified that the majority of the reduction in life expectancy associated with diabetes was due to ‘vascular deaths’—deaths related to conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, and aneurysms. Other complications, such as cancer, also contributed to lowering life expectancy.
Professor Naveed Sattar from the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, further emphasized, “Our findings support the idea that the younger an individual is when they develop type 2 diabetes, the more damage their body accumulates from its impaired metabolism. But the findings also suggest that early detection of diabetes by screening followed by intensive glucose management could help prevent long-term complications from the condition.”
