Gyldenkerne C, Knudsen JS, Olesen KKW, et al. - Between 1996 and 2011, Danish patients with incident type 2 diabetes who had no prior cardiovascular disease experienced significant reductions in cardiac risk and mortality. The risk reductions were accompanied by an increase in the use of prophylactic cardiovascular medications.

• In this population-based cohort study, 209,311 patients with incident diabetes were identified.

• The 7-year risk of myocardial infarction decreased from 6.9 to 2.8%, cardiac death from 7.1 to 1.6%, and all-cause death from 28.9 to 16.8% from 1996–1999 to 2008–2011.

• Compared with the general population, 7-year risk differences for myocardial infarction, cardiac death, and all-cause death fell from 3.3 to 0.8%, 2.7 to 0.5%, and 10.6 to 6.0%, respectively.

• During the study period, the use of cardiovascular medications, particularly statins, increased within ± 1 year of a diabetes diagnosis.