The American Heart Association (AHA) has released a new scientific statement that recommends a comprehensive approach to the management of all cardiovascular risk factors in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D), including glycemia, blood pressure, lipid abnormalities, thrombotic risk, obesity and smoking. Management of these risk factors in T2D remains poor, despite effective therapies, according to the statement published Jan. 10 in Circulation.

The statement incorporates new evidence from several large randomized, controlled trials with newer glucose-lowering medications such as SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 RAs that have been shown to reduce cardiovascular outcomes, including cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke and heart failure. It also focuses on the impact of blood pressure control on cardiovascular events in diabetes, as well as the role of newer lipid-lowering therapies in comprehensive cardiovascular risk management in adults with diabetes. The statement recommends using lifestyle and pharmacological approaches with proven benefit using a patient-centered approach.

Screening for cardiovascular and renal complications is reviewed, along with the role of traditional and new imaging tests to assess subclinical cardiovascular disease.

Notably, the statement explores the critical importance of the social determinants of health and health equity in the continuum of care in diabetes and cardiovascular disease and calls for efforts to address social determinants of health in the delivery of health care, as well as interventions to eliminate disparities in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular death to advance health equity.

“Further research exploring the role of combined lifestyle, pharmacological, and social determinants of health intervention approaches remain an area of further investigation,” the authors conclude.

Clinical Topics: Dyslipidemia, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies, Prevention, Lipid Metabolism, Acute Heart Failure, Smoking

Keywords: Stroke, Lipids, Smoking, Obesity, Patient-Centered Care, Continuity of Patient Care, Myocardial Infarction, Heart Disease Risk Factors, Heart Failure, Glucose, Glucagon-Like Peptide 1, Risk Factors, Social Determinants of Health, Health Equity, Blood Pressure, American Heart Association, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2 Inhibitors

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