Women with type 2 diabetes before the age of 40 have the highest risk of premature death

One study found that patients with type 2 diabetes who are younger than 40 are twice as likely to die prematurely as their peers.

Those who develop this disease before middle age are almost three times more likely to die from a heart attack or stroke, with women being particularly at risk.

The risk gradually decreased with age in people diagnosed at age 80 or older with the same risks of dying prematurely as in people without diabetes.

Experts said the results show that the focus should be more on preventing the disease, which is closely related to obesity, especially among younger women.

People who develop this disease before middle age are almost three times more likely to die from a heart attack or stroke, with women being particularly at risk.

Rates of type 2 diabetes have soared in recent years as rates of obesity skyrocket, resulting in a growing number of adolescents and young adults diagnosed.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow wanted to compare the excessive risk of developing cardiovascular disease or dying from this disease in diabetic patients, taking into account the long-standing duration.

They examined 318,083 patients with type 2 diabetes and nearly 1.6 million people without heart disease, using data over 15 years.

During an average follow-up of nearly two and a half years, the researchers compared the results to control participants of the same age without type 2 diabetes.

They found that people diagnosed before the age of 40 had the greatest additional risk of death, stroke, heart attack, heart failure or atrial fibrillation.

Women generally had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death than men.

These risks have also gradually decreased with the age of diagnosis, according to findings published in the journal Circulation of the American Heart Association.

But patients diagnosed before the age of 40 had almost five times more risk of heart failure and more than four times the risk of heart disease.

Patients who developed the condition before adulthood tended to live more than a decade younger than their healthier peers, according to the study.

Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine and lead author of the study, said that health interventions should target younger patients with type 2 diabetes or at risk of developing it.

"Our study shows that the differences in risk of excessive diabetes are related to the age of the person diagnosed with type 2 diabetes," he said.

"This suggests that we need to be more aggressive in controlling risk factors in young patients with type 2 diabetes and in particular women.

"And there could be much less effort and resources spent screening people with type 2 diabetes in people 80 years and older, unless symptoms are present.

"In addition, our work could also be used to encourage middle-aged people at risk for high diabetes to adopt lifestyle changes in order to delay their diabetes by several years."