New research has shown that a history of diabetes, stroke or heart attack can lower life expectancy significantly.
It further said that a combination of two or more of these conditions, defined as cardiometabolic multimorbidity, can reduce it even further.
Researchers estimate that 40-year-olds with a history of diabetes, stroke and heart attack may experience a 23-year reduction in life expectancy.
Study co-author John Danesh, of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and colleagues say the prevalence of cardiometabolic multimorbidity is on the rise, affecting around 10 million adults within the US and theEuropean Union.
The team analyzed data from the Emerging Rick Factors Collaboration, involving 689,300 participants from surveys conducted between 1960 and 2007.
This data was compared with that from the UK Biobank, involving 499,808 participants from surveys conducted between 2006 and 2010.
Data from the Emerging Rick Factors Collaboration included 128,843 deaths, while data from the UK Biobank included 7,995 deaths.
The researchers used the data to estimate mortality rates among individuals with a history of either diabetes, heart attack or stroke, a history of two or more of these conditions or no history of any of these conditions.
Adults with cardiometabolic multimorbidity (that is having 2 or more of the conditions) may face 23-year reduction in life expectancy compared with participants who had no history of diabetes, heart attack or stroke.
Those who had a history of one of these conditions was found to have twice the rate of death, however, the death rate was found to be even higher with each additional condition.
The rate of death among participants with a history of two of these conditions was four times higher, while the rate of death increased eight-fold for participants who had all three conditions.
Based on the findings, the team thus estimates that a history of cardiometabolic multimorbidity is associated with a reduced life expectancy similar to that caused by lifelong smoking or HIV, a reduction of around 10 and 11 years, respectively.
In addition, the researchers estimate that overall, men are likely to experience more lost life years than women as a result of cardiometabolic multimorbidity.
