Age-related trends in cardiometabolic disease among adults with cerebral palsy.

AIM: To examine the longitudinal trends of cardiometabolic diseases in a large sample of adults with cerebral palsy (CP).

METHOD: The Optum Clinformatics Data Mart is a de-identified nationwide claims database of beneficiaries from a single private payer. Beneficiaries were included if they had an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code for a diagnosis of CP. Adults with at least 3 years of continuous enrollment on a single plan between 2002 and 2009 were included in the final analyses (n=2659). We examined the longitudinal trends of incident diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, cardiac dysrhythmias, and atherosclerosis, stratified by age categories: 18 to 39 years, 40 to 59 years, and 60 years and over. Kaplan-Meier product-limit survival curves were compared across age categories for each of the cardiometabolic outcomes, and a Cox proportional hazards regression was run to determine adjusted hazard ratios.

RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of each of the cardiometabolic diseases ranged from 6.0% for atherosclerosis to 34.4% for hypercholesterolemia at 3 years and over. Risk-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models revealed that age was a robust predictor of survival for each outcome, with higher hazard ratio ranges in middle age (hazard ratio 1.41-2.72) and older adults (hazard ratio 2.20-5.93) compared with young adults.

INTERPRETATION: Adults with CP have high rates of cardiometabolic diseases; and disease-free survival shortens significantly with higher ages.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Adults with cerebral palsy have high rates of cardiometabolic diseases. Disease-free survival of all cardiometabolic diseases shortens significantly with higher ages. The highest rates were for hypercholesterolemia and hypertension.