Depression, diabetes, their comorbidity and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort study

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Abstract

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to investigate the risks of all-cause and cause-specific mortality among participants with neither, one or both of diabetes and depression in a large prospective cohort study in the UK.

METHODS: Our study population included 499,830 UK Biobank participants without schizophrenia and bipolar disorder at baseline. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes and depression were identified using self-reported diagnoses, prescribed medication and hospital records. Mortality was identified from death records using the primary cause of death to define cause-specific mortality. We performed Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the risk of all-cause mortality and mortality from cancer, circulatory disease and causes of death other than circulatory disease or cancer among participants with either depression (n=41,791) or diabetes (n=22,677) alone and with comorbid diabetes and depression (n=3597) compared with the group with neither condition (n=431,765), adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, comorbidities and history of CVD or cancer. We also investigated the interaction between diabetes and depression.

RESULTS: During a median of 6.8 (IQR 6.1-7.5) years of follow-up, there were 13,724 deaths (cancer, n=7976; circulatory disease, n=2827; other causes, n=2921). Adjusted HRs of all-cause mortality and mortality from cancer, circulatory disease and other causes were highest among people with comorbid depression and diabetes (HRs 2.16 [95% CI 1.94, 2.42]; 1.62 [95% CI 1.35, 1.93]; 2.22 [95% CI 1.80, 2.73]; and 3.60 [95% CI 2.93, 4.42], respectively). The risks of all-cause, cancer and other mortality among those with comorbid depression and diabetes exceeded the sum of the risks due to diabetes and depression alone.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: We confirmed that depression and diabetes individually are associated with an increased mortality risk and also identified that comorbid depression and diabetes have synergistic effects on the risk of all-cause mortality that are largely driven by deaths from cancer and causes other than circulatory disease and cancer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1450-1460
JournalDiabetologia
Volume65
Issue number9
Early online date27 May 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 27 May 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology
  • Cause of Death
  • Depression/complications
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/complications
  • Humans
  • Neoplasms/epidemiology
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Prospective Studies
  • Risk Factors

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