Hypertriglyceridaemia predicts subsequent long-term risk of cardiovascular events in Chinese adults: 23-year follow-up of the Daqing Diabetes Study.

BACKGROUND

Limited information is available on the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with hypertriglyceridaemia (HTG) in the Chinese population. We estimated this risk over a 23-year period in participants recruited from among those included in the Da Qing Diabetes Study.

METHODS

A total of 833 Chinese adults including 379 with normal glucose levels and 454 with hyperglycaemia were identified by their oral glucose tolerance in 1986 in Da Qing, China. CVD outcomes were monitored until 2009. Thirty-four percent (280/833) of the participants had HTG, which was defined as a fasting plasma triglyceride (TG) level ≥ 1.7 mmol/L, at the baseline time point.

RESULTS

Over the 23-yearfollow-up period, 149 subjects in the HTG group and 190 subjects in the non-HTG group (NTG group) experienced their first CVD event, including fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. The age and sex-adjusted annual incidence of the first CVD event per 1000 person-years was 30.23 for the HTG group vs 18.68 for the NTG group. The corresponding rates for MI and stroke were 7.71 vs 3.89 and 19.55 vs 13.98, respectively. After adjusting for confounders, the HTG group had a 28% higher risk of the first CVD event than the NTG group. This association was significant among only the subjects with a serum cholesterol level > 5.7 mmol/L and those with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).

CONCLUSION

HGT predicted a substantially higher subsequent long-term risk of the first CVD event in Chinese adults, especially in those with hypercholesterolaemia and hyperglycaemia.