Insomnia imparts an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) comparable with that conferred by traditional risk factors (eg, overweight, non-white race, cardiovascular risk factors), according to a recent study. Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine the risk of developing T2D among patients with pre-diabetes with and without insomnia. Participants diagnosed with pre-diabetes between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2015, and without sleep apnea were followed until December 31, 2016. Patients were determined to have T2D when 2 of the following occurred within a 2-year window: physician-entered outpatient T2D diagnosis, dispensing of an antihyperglycemia agent, and hemoglobin A1c (A1c) >6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or fasting plasma glucose (FPG) >125 mg/dL. 1 hospital inpatient stay with an associated T2D diagnosis was also sufficient for classification of T2D. Highlights included:

• The cohort consisted of 81,233 persons with pre-diabetes, 24,146 (29.7%) of whom had insomnia at some point during the 4.3-year average observation period.
• After adjustment for traditional risk factors, those with insomnia were 28% more likely to develop T2D than those without insomnia.
• The estimate was essentially unchanged after adjusting for baseline A1c level or FPG.