- IDF estimates that there are at least 194 million people in the world with diabetes. This figure is expected to almost double over the next 25 years.
- Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in industrialized countries. It is also set to overtake infectious diseases as the most common cause of death in many parts of the less developed world.
- People with diabetes are two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than people without diabetes, making it the most common complication of diabetes.
- For each risk factor present the risk of cardiovascular death is about three times greater in people with diabetes as compared to people without the condition.
- While cardiovascular deaths in developed countries have declined in those without diabetes, in men with diabetes the decrease has been a modest 13%, while in women with diabetes the rates have actually increased by 23%.
- People with type 2 diabetes with no history of heart attacks have as great a risk of having a heart attack in the future as people without diabetes who have already experienced a heart attack.
- People with diabetes can have a heart attack without even realizing it.
- Strokes occur twice as often in people with diabetes and high blood pressure as in those with high blood pressure alone.
- People with diabetes are 15 to 40 times more likely to require a lower-limb amputation compared to the general population.
- After a coronary event, people with diabetes have a one and a half to two times higher death rate than those without diabetes over the short and long term.