Association of a Healthy Lifestyle With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective Study in UK Biobank

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of a healthy lifestyle, involving seven low-risk factors mentioned in diabetes management guidelines (no current smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, regular physical activity, healthy diet, less sedentary behavior, adequate sleep duration, and appropriate social connection), with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among individuals with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This study included 13,366 participants with baseline type 2 diabetes from the UK Biobank free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. Lifestyle information was collected through a baseline questionnaire. RESULTS During a median follow-up of 11.7 years, 1,561 deaths were documented, with 625 from cancer, 370 from CVD, 115 from respiratory disease, 81 from digestive disease, and 74 from neurodegenerative disease. In multivariate-adjusted model, each lifestyle factor was significantly associated with all-cause mortality, and hazard ratios associated with the lifestyle score (scoring 6–7 vs. 0–2 unless specified) were 0.42 (95% CI 0.34, 0.52) for all-cause mortality, 0.57 (0.41, 0.80) for cancer mortality, 0.35 (0.22, 0.56) for CVD mortality, 0.26 (0.10, 0.63) for respiratory mortality, and 0.28 (0.14, 0.53) for digestive mortality (scoring 5–7 vs. 0–2). In the population-attributable risk analysis, 29.4% (95% CI 17.9%, 40.9%) of deaths were attributable to a poor lifestyle (scoring 0–5). The association between a healthy lifestyle and all-cause mortality was consistent, irrespective of factors reflecting diabetes severity (diabetes duration, glycemic control, diabetes-related microvascular disease, and diabetes medication). CONCLUSIONS A healthy lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and mortality due to CVD, cancer, respiratory disease, and digestive disease among individuals with type 2 diabetes.