Type 1 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism: A retrospective population-based cohort study

PLoS One. 2020 Jan 14;15(1):e0226997. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226997. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Background: It has been unclear whether diabetes mellitus (DM) is positively associated with a risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). In addition, whether the risk of VTE is altered in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) has rarely been explored.

Aim: We investigated whether patients with T1DM are at a relatively high risk of VTE development.

Methods: We retrieved data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan to conduct this retrospective cohort study. The T1DM group consisted of 4967 patients diagnosed as having T1DM before 2003. The non-T1DM group comprised 19 868 age- and sex-matched enrollees without T1DM. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to investigate the hazard ratio of VTE in patients with T1DM relative to those without T1DM.

Results: During a mean follow-up period of 8.61 years, the risk of VTE in the T1DM group was 5.33-fold higher than in the non-T1DM group after adjusting for dyslipidemia, hypertension, stroke, lower leg fracture or surgery, and obesity. Further stratified analysis revealed that the risk of VTE was significantly high in both sexes and in all age groups below the age of 60.

Conclusion: T1DM appears to be an independent risk factor for VTE development.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Cohort Studies
  • Databases, Factual
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / complications*
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Assessment
  • Risk Factors
  • Taiwan / epidemiology
  • Venous Thromboembolism / epidemiology
  • Venous Thromboembolism / etiology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This study is supported by Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare Clinical Trial Center (MOHW108-TDU-B-212-133004), China Medical University (CMU105-S-48), China Medical University Hospital, Academia Sinica Stroke Biosignature Project (BM10701010021), MOST Clinical Trial Consortium for Stroke (MOST 107-2321-B-039 -004-), Tseng-Lien Lin Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan, and Katsuzo and Kiyo Aoshima Memorial Funds, Japan. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No additional external funding was received for this study.