What This Means
This study followed more than 27,000 Chinese adults aged 60 and older with type 2 diabetes who had at least three health checkups between 2018 and 2023. Researchers tracked three measures together over time: fasting blood sugar, LDL ("bad") cholesterol, and diastolic blood pressure. They grouped patients by how these measures changed and then compared the groups' rates of heart disease, stroke, and diabetic kidney disease.
About 87% of both men and women had stable patterns. A smaller group followed a pattern in which the measures first fell and then rose (U shape) or first rose and then fell (inverse U shape). In men, the U-shape pattern was linked to higher odds of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease, and the inverse U-shape pattern was linked to higher odds of kidney disease. In women, the inverse U-shape pattern was linked to higher odds of coronary heart disease and kidney disease.
This research suggests that looking at how several risk factors change together over time, and separately for men and women, may help identify older people with diabetes who are at higher risk of complications. Because the study is retrospective and reports associations, it cannot show that these patterns cause complications. The authors suggest the findings could support earlier identification and more personalized management.