Suboptimal use of cardioprotective drugs in newly treated elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes.

C ardiovascular disease is the main complication experienced by elderly individuals with diabetes (1). Despite randomized trials showing the benefits of individual (2–4) or combined (5) pharmacological treatments of cardiovascular risk factors in diabetes, observational studies have shown suboptimal use of medications (6–8). However, little is known about the use of cardioprotective medication among elderly individuals who were not already taking it before diabetes treatment was undertaken. We therefore studied a population of elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes in the province of Quebec, Canada, who had not been treated with any antihypertensive, lipid-lowering, or antiplatelet drugs in the year before oral antidiabetes drug initiation. We assessed whether they used a comprehensive cardioprotective regimen (CCR) of those three medications in the year following oral antidiabetic initiation. We also identified the determinants of a CCR use.