Prediabetes increases cardiovascular risk

Essentially, prediabetes refers to fasting blood glucose and HbA₁c levels that are higher than normal, but are not elevated sufficiently for a diagnosis of diabetes. Nevertheless, a new meta-analysis suggests that prediabetes is associated with an increased CVD risk even at relatively low levels, such as a fasting glucose concentration of 5.6mmol/l or HbA₁c of 39mmol/mol.

The meta-analysis included 53 studies that followed 1.6 million individuals for a median of 9.5 years. Compared to controls with normal glycaemia, prediabetes was associated with a 13% to 30% increase (depending on the definition, which differs between guidelines) in the risk of a composite of CVD endpoints. Prediabetes increased the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) by 10-20%, stroke by 6-20% and all-cause mortality by 13-32%.