AHA Advice for Diabetes Patients to Stay Heart Healthy

A new document from the American Heart Association (AHA) summarizes the latest research on cardiovascular risk factor management in type 2 diabetes, including medications, lifestyle, and social determinants of health.

Despite the availability of effective therapies for improving cardiovascular risk, in the United States fewer than 1 in 5 people with type 2 diabetes and without known cardiovascular disease meet control targets for a combination of A1c, blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and nonsmoking status.

That proportion drops to less than 1 in 10 if body-mass index (BMI) less than 30 kg/m² is included among the targets, and even less than that among individuals with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, Joshua J. Joseph, MD, and colleagues point out in their paper, published online January 10 in Circulation.

"This new scientific statement is an urgent call to action to follow the latest evidence-based approaches and to develop new best practices to advance type 2 diabetes treatment and care and reduce cardiovascular disease risk," Joseph, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, and co-authors write.

The statement is not a guideline but an expert analysis that may inform future clinical practice guidelines, according to a press release from the AHA.

The new statement reviews evidence through June 2020 for lifestyle management of diabetes and weight, glycemic targets and control, blood pressure management, lipid management, antithrombotic therapy, and screening for cardiovascular and renal complications, including imaging. It also discusses the clinical implications of recent cardiovascular outcomes trials of newer glucose-lowering medications.

However, Joseph and colleagues point out, clinical care and treatment account for just 10% to 20% of modifiable contributors to health outcomes. The other 80% to 90% relate to social determinants of health, including health-related behaviors, socioeconomic factors, environmental factors, and racism.

"If we are to continue to advance the management of cardiovascular risk factors, we must also address the [social determinants of health] in the delivery of health care," they note.

Overall, they advise a patient-centered approach, meaning "reframing our clinical encounters to think about patients as people who live in families, communities, and societies that must be considered in their cardiovascular risk management."

"People with [type 2 diabetes] face numerous barriers to health including access to care and equitable care, which must be considered when developing individualized care plans with our patients," Joseph said in the AHA press release.

Lifestyle, Medications for Lowering A1c, BP, Lipids

For lifestyle management, the authors say, "culturally appropriate recommendations through diabetes self-management education and support and medical nutrition therapy are key to meeting individualized goals for behavioral change and diabetes self-management."

The document summarizes recommendations from other professional societies regarding glycemic targets and glucose lowering medications, ie, target A1c levels of either <7% or <6.5% for the majority, with adjustments based on individual factors, such as life expectancy. It advises on use of metformin as first-line therapy followed by a sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitor or a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist for those with established cardiovascular disease or risk factors.

"Cost may be a barrier to taking some [type 2 diabetes] medications as prescribed, however, many of these medications are now more commonly covered by more health insurance plans," Joseph said.

"Another barrier is recognition by patients that these newer [type 2 diabetes] medications are also effective in reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, heart failure and kidney disease."

Blood pressure treatment guidelines differ between those of the AHA/American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA), most notably that AHA/ACC advise a general target of <130/80 mm Hg, whereas ADA advises <140/90 mm Hg or <130/80 mm Hg for those with high risk if it can be safely achieved.

The decision should be "patient-centered with shared decision-making," Joseph and colleagues advise.

For lipid-lowering, the document cites the 2018 ACC/AHA cholesterol guidelines, which include advising statins as first-line therapy for both primary and secondary prevention in diabetes, with highest intensity statins used in those at highest risk. But again, treatment should be individualized, and other agents should be used for patients in whom statins don't work or aren't tolerated.

And while use of antiplatelets ― ie, aspirin ― is well-established as secondary prevention in type 2 diabetes, given new data suggesting that the risk for major bleeding could outweigh the benefits for primary prevention, "the relative benefits of antithrombotic approaches need to be weighed carefully against risks using a patient-centered approach," the authors also advise.

Among the many imaging tests available to facilitate cardiovascular risk stratification in type 2 diabetes, coronary artery calcification (CAC) CT screening is one of the few with sufficient data to support routine use in selected patients. The National Lipid Association, for example, recommends escalation to high-intensity statin for CAC > 100.

"One avenue to continue to address and advance diabetes management is through breaking down the four walls of the clinic or hospital through community engagement, clinic-to-community connections and academic-community-government partnerships that may help address and support modifiable lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity, nutrition, smoking cessation and stress management," Joseph concludes.

The AHA receives funding primarily from individuals. Foundations and corporations, including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers, and other companies, also make donations and fund AHA programs and events. The AHA's strict policies prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers, and health insurance providers and the AHA's financial information are available here. Joseph has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Circulation. Published online January 10, 2022. Abstract

Miriam E. Tucker is a freelance journalist based in the Washington, DC, area. She is a regular contributor to Medscape, with other work appearing in the Washington Post, NPR's Shots blog, and Diabetes Forecast magazine. She is on Twitter @MiriamETucker.

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