Lin CC, Li CI, Liu CS, et al. - Long-term metabolic risk factor trajectories may be linked to mortality in the future.

• Six thousand four hundred persons aged ≥ 30 years with type 2 diabetes and ≥ 3 years of follow-up were involved.

• Cluster 1, normal; cluster 2, high–stable or reducing with a high level at baseline; and cluster 3, fluctuation: elevated and decreasing, were created as metabolic risk factor trajectory subgroups.

• Body mass index (BMI), fasting plasma glucose (FPG], HbA1c, and triglyceride (TG) trajectories in clusters 2 and 3 were correlated with increased risks of all-cause mortality compared with cluster 1 (hazard ratio = 1.27, 95% confidence interval = 1.06–1.51 and 1.45, 1.19–1.78 for BMI; 1.41, 1.22–1.62 and 1.81, 1.38–2.38 for FPG; 1.42, 1.23–1.64 and 1.47, 1.23–1.75 for HbA1c; 1.34, 1.10–1.63 and 2.40, 1.30–4.37 for TG, respectively).

• Only cluster 3 was linked to a higher mortality risk than cluster 1 (1.76, 1.13–2.77) in the systolic blood pressure trajectory.