Does vital exhaustion increase the risk of type 2 diabetes? A prospective study

- The average Vital Exhaustion score was 4.2 for women and 3.0 for men.
- Vital exhaustion score showed a significant association with type 2 diabetes.
- The OR of developing diabetes was 2.56 among the quartile with the highest score.

BackgroundThere is evidence that both stress and depression have a causal relationship with type 2 diabetes suggesting that vital exhaustion (VE) too could be a risk factor. The association between VE and type 2 diabetes has, however, not been investigated prospectively.AimTo prospectively investigate whether VE is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in a Danish population.MethodsA prospective cohort study based on the Copenhagen City Heart Study (1991-1993). The degree of VE was measured among 9075 participants without type 1 or 2 diabetes at baseline. To detect type 2 diabetes in the follow-up period, two different approaches were used: In the first substudy, type 2 diabetes was defined based on blood samples and questionnaires from a follow-up study in 2001-2003 (N = 4708). The second substudy was register-based, and the study population was linked to the Danish Hospital Discharge Register to detect registrations with type 2 diabetes until 2014.ResultsA high degree of VE was associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in both substudies.In the first substudy, the OR for developing type 2 diabetes was 2.56 (95% CI, 1.53; 4,29, P < 0,001) among the quartile of participants reporting the highest degree of VE.In the second substudy, the OR was 1.31 (95% CI, 0.99; 1.72, P = 0.053) for this group.ConclusionThe results indicate that VE may be a useful measure in clinical practice in order to discover individuals at risk of type 2 diabetes.