A recent study by Professor LIU Gang's team at the School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), has been published online in The Lancet Healthy Longevity. The research, titled "Associations of social determinants of health with life expectancy and future health risks among individuals with type 2 diabetes," explores the significant correlation between favorable health social determinants and the reduced risk of diabetes complications and improved life expectancy in patients with type 2 diabetes.

The study emphasizes that health-related social determinants, which include economic status, accessibility to and quality of education, accessibility to and quality of healthcare, neighborhood built environment, and social support, are significantly associated with a lower risk of diabetes complications and an increase in life expectancy. The findings suggest that these upstream drivers should not be overlooked in the management and prevention of diabetes-related complications.

The research involved constructing a comprehensive score based on five dimensions: economic status, education accessibility and quality, healthcare accessibility and quality, neighborhood built environment, and social support. The study categorized health social determinants into three different levels and further quantified their impact on the risk of diabetes complications and life expectancy.

The study included approximately 25,000 patients with type 2 diabetes from two large population cohorts, with a follow-up period lasting for 7.0 to 12.3 years. During this time, there were 5,513 deaths, 3,010 cases of cardiovascular complications, 1,997 cases of microvascular complications, 773 cases of dementia, and 2,259 cases of cancer. After adjustment for various confounding factors, the analysis found that:

l Health social determinants significantly affect the risk of cardiovascular complications, microvascular complications, dementia, cancer, and mortality in patients with diabetes. Favorable health social determinants can significantly lower the risk of diabetes complications by 15%-50%.

l In terms of life expectancy, favorable health social determinants can increase the average life expectancy by 1.6-4.4 years.

The study concludes that improving health social determinants among patients with type 2 diabetes can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes complications and increase life expectancy. It highlights the importance of addressing these upstream factors in policy-making to promote health equity and mitigate the burden of diabetes.

The research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and other funding sources. School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology graduate students ZHONG Jiale and ZHANG Yanbo are the co-leading authors of the paper, and Professor LIU Gang is the corresponding author.