Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the study cohort, both overall and according to microvascular complications burden

Men/women, n (%)

407/367 (52.6/47.4)

224/201 (52.7/47.3)

130/120 (52.0/48.0)

36/39 (48.0/52.0)

17/7 (70.8/29.2)

Age, years

40.2 ± 11.7

36.3 ± 10.1

43.0 ± 10.4***

48.4 ± 13.0*** ^††

55.7 ± 13.7*** ^{††† ‡}

Age at diabetes diagnosis, years

20.8 ± 10.9

23.2 ± 10.7

17.5 ± 10.0***

17.7 ± 11.6***

24.6 ± 8.9^{† ‡}

Duration of diabetes, years

19.4 ± 12.2

13.1 ± 9.4

25.5 ± 10.2***

30.7 ± 11.2*** ^†††

31.1 ± 12.9***

BMI, kg/m²

24.8 ± 3.6

24.2 ± 3.3

25.3 ± 3.7***

26.2 ± 3.7***

26.8 ± 3.9**

WHR

0.921 ± 0.063

0.914 ± 0.056

0.924 ± 0.069

0.943 ± 0.070**

0.945 ± 0.081

Smoking habits (non-smokers, current smokers) (n. 759), n (%)

534/225 (70.4/29.6)

295/121 (70.9/29.1)

168/78 (68.3/31.7)

53/21 (71.6/28.4)

18/5 (78.3/21.7)

Fasting glucose, mmol/L

9.44 ± 4.56

9.10 ± 4.23

9.44 ± 4.78

10.74 ± 5.18*

11.44 ± 4.80

HbA_1c,  % (mmol/mol)

7.83 ± 1.18 (62.1 ± 12.9)

7.70 ± 1.19 (60.6 ± 13.0)

7.85 ± 1.11 (62.3 ± 12.2)

8.25 ± 1.10** (66.7 ± 12.0)

8.60 ± 1.30** ^† (70.4 ± 14.2)

Systolic BP, mmHg

127 ± 18

122 ± 15

130 ± 18***

136 ± 20*** ^†

150 ± 16*** ^{††† ‡‡}

Diastolic BP, mmHg

73 ± 9

72 ± 8

75 ± 9**

74 ± 10

79 ± 11**

Total cholesterol, mmol/L

4.84 ± 0.88

4.72 ± 0.85

5.00 ± 0.90**

5.08 ± 0.85*

4.68 ± 1.07

LDL cholesterol, mmol/L

3.01 ± 0.76

2.94 ± 0.76

3.11 ± 0.74*

3.12 ± 0.73

2.92 ± 0.94

HDL cholesterol, mmol/L

 Men

1.45 (1.24–1.71)

1.44 (1.22–1.71)

1.53 (1.29–1.71)

1.49 (1.32–1.68)

1.40 (1.06–1.73)

 Women

1.74 (1.48–2.07)

1.71 (1.42–1.99)

1.79 (1.51–2.15)

1.79 (1.58–2.15)

1.76 (1.37–1.84)

Triacylglycerol, mmol/L

 Men

0.90 (0.71–1.24)

0.86 (0.69–1.15)

0.94 (0.71–1.30)

1.00 (0.81–1.68)

1.22 (0.81–1.62)

 Women

0.78 (0.60–1.06)

0.75 (0.58–1.04)

0.80 (0.63–1.06)

0.84 (0.66–1.06)

1.32 (0.80–1.33)

ALT, U/L

20.0 ± 10.8

19.7 ± 11.5

20.1 ± 9.0

20.6 ± 8.9

23.6 ± 18.7

AST, U/L

22.3 ± 31.8

20.9 ± 16.1

24.4 ± 27.6

21.6 ± 10.9

26.7 ± 38.2

Gamma-GT, U/L

20.6 ± 33.3

18.4 ± 27.9

20.2 ± 20.5

22.5 ± 18.0

56.2 ± 125.8*** ^{††† ‡‡‡}

Uric acid, µmol/L

223.6 ± 67.4

213.7 ± 58.3

241.4 ± 72.3

316.3 ± 102.0*** ^†††

381.7 ± 152.1*** ^{††† ‡}

Fibrinogen, µmol/L

9.89 ± 2.00

9.63 ± 1.93

10.93 ± 2.33

10.77 ± 1.59*** ^††

12.32 ± 2.56*** ^††

Creatinine, µmol/L

73.3 ± 18.6

70.8 ± 12.8

72.0 ± 12.6

79.6 ± 24.9*** ^†

111.3 ± 55.5*** ^{††† ‡‡‡}

Albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), mg/mmol

0.49 (0.26–1.00)

0.40 (0.23–0.75)

0.52 (0.26–0.97)

1.66*** ^††† (0.40–8.38)

8.31*** ^{††† ‡‡‡} (3.67–51.08)

eGFR, CKD-EPI, mL/min/1.73 m²

102.5 ± 17.4

107.4 ± 14.1

101.1 ± 13.8***

90.4 ± 21.9*** ^†††

68.9 ± 28.0*** ^{††† ‡‡‡}

Daily insulin dose, IU/kg body weight

0.66 ± 0.20

0.66 ± 0.21

0.67 ± 0.19

0.66 ± 0.22

0.78 ± 0.21

MDI/CSII, n (%)

691/83 (89.3/10.7)

380/45 (89.4/10.6)

223/27 (89.2/10.8)

65/10 (86.7/13.3)

23/1 (95.8/4.2)

Treatment with BP-lowering agents, n (%)

151 (19.5)

28 (6.6)

61 (24.4)***

46 (61.3)*** ^†††

16 (66.7)*** ^†††

Treatment with RAS blockers, n (%)

136 (17.6)

23 (5.4)

56 (22.4)***

42 (56.0)*** ^†††

15 (62.5)*** ^†††

Treatment with lipid-lowering agents, n (%)

100 (12.9)

35 (8.2)

38 (15.2)**

18 (24.0)***

9 (37.5)*** ^††

Treatment with antiplatelet drugs, n (%)

50 (6.5)

6 (1.4)

19 (7.6)***

17 (22.7)*** ^†††

8 (33.3)*** ^†††

Treatment with metformin, n (%)

46 (5.9)

18 (4.2)

20 (8.0)

5 (6.7)

3 (12.5)

Hypertension, n (%)

270 (34.9)

82 (19.3)

110 (44.0)***

55 (73.3)*** ^†††

23 (95.8)*** ^{††† ‡}

Retinopathy: no retinopathy/non advanced/advanced, n (%)

452/202/120 (58.4/26.1/15.5)

425/0/0 (100/0/0)

26/164/60*** (10.4/65.6/24.0)

1/32/42*** ^††† (1.3/42.7/56.0)

0/6/18*** ^††† (0/25.0/75.0)

Peripheral polyneuropathy: no/yes, n (%)

706/68 (91.2/8.8)

425/0 (100/0)

241/9*** (96.4/3.6)

40/35*** ^††† (53.3/46.7)

0/24*** ^{††† ‡‡‡} (0/100)

Diabetic kidney disease: no/yes, n (%)

792/82 (89.4/10.6)

425/0 (100/0)

233/17*** (93.2/6.8)

34/41*** ^††† (45.3/54.7)

0/24*** ^{††† ‡‡‡} (0/100)

Major adverse cardiovascular events, n (%)

41 (5.3)

7 (1.6)

14 (5.6)**

13 (17.3)*** ^††

7 (29.2)*** ^†††

Coronary artery disease, n (%)

29 (3.7)

3 (0.7)

10 (4.0)**

10 (13.3)*** ^††

6 (25.0)*** ^††

Stroke, n (%)

4 (0.5)

2 (0.5)

0 (0)

2 (2.7)

0 (0)

EURODIAB PCS risk score: LS, IS, HS, n (%)

466/205/103 (60.2/26.5/13.3)

324/84/17 (76.2/19.8/4.0)

127/87/36*** (50.8/34.8/14.4)

14/30/31*** ^††† (18.7/40.0/41.3)

1/4/19*** ^{††† ‡‡} (4.2/16.7/79.2)

Cancer, n (%)

9 (1.2)

3 (0.7)

2 (0.8)

3 (4.0)* ^†

1 (4.2)

Autoimmune thyreopathy, n (%)

113 (14.6)

58 (13.6)

44 (17.6)

8 (10.7)

3 (12.5)