Early-onset type 2 diabetes <60 years and risk of vascular complications.

<bold>Aim: </bold>To compare long-term outcomes among three groups with different ages of diabetes onset.<bold>Method: </bold>66,520 paired age-, and sex-matched persons with and without type 2 diabetes were selected from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 to 2012. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the outcomes. Using late-onset diabetes as a reference, adjusted difference in differences analyses were performed to assess excessive odds comparing diabetes versus non-diabetes for young-onset diabetes (YOD) and early-onset diabetes in the risks of mortality and vascular complications.<bold>Results: </bold>Persons with type 2 diabetes, irrespective of the onset age, had higher associated risks of all-cause mortality and vascular complications than their matched counterparts without diabetes. Compared to the odds of complications between those with diabetes and non-diabetes in the late-onset diabetes group, the excess odds in YOD are generally greater than in the early-onset diabetes (for stroke: 1.90 vs. 1.32; heart failure: 2.03 vs. 1.58; myocardial infarction: 3.02 vs. 1.56; and microvascular complications: 3.52 vs. 3.01).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Diabetes with different ages of onset may imply distinct long-term health outcomes. The persons with young-onset and early-onset diabetes seem to bear excess risk for mortality and vascular complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]