Diet impacts cardiovascular disease risk, but the association across
diabetes subtypes is unclear. We thus aimed to assess the association
between dietary factors and estimated 10-year cardiovascular disease
risk across diabetes subtypes in the German Diabetes Study (GDS).
Participants with recent-onset diabetes and from the 5-year follow-up
examination were combined (n=635, mean age 47.5±12.9 years, 60% male)
and classified into diabetes subtypes. Subtypes with prevalence >10%
were included in cross-sectional analyses: severe autoimmune diabetes
(39%), mild obesity-related diabetes (31%), and mild age-related
diabetes (30%). Carbohydrate quality parameters and adherence to dietary
patterns were assessed from food frequency questionnaires. Differences
in associations between these dietary factors and 10-year cardiovascular
risk estimated by SCORE2-Diabetes across subtypes were examined using
multivariable-adjusted linear regression models including an interaction
term. In people with severe autoimmune diabetes, the overall and the
healthful plant-based diet index were associated with lower estimated
10-year cardiovascular risk (ß [95% CI] -6.8 [-12.1; -1.2] and -8.8%
[-14.0; -3.2] per 1-standard deviation increases, respectively), while
these associations were not evident among the remaining two subtypes
(p-value for interaction between subtypes <0.05). Our findings
suggest subtype-specific associations of plant-based dietary patterns
with estimated cardiovascular risk, warranting further research from
longitudinal and intervention studies. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01055093