Baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics
| Characteristic | N=2696 |
| Months of follow-up, mean (SD) | 52.0 (32.5) |
| Age in years, median (IQR) | 57.1 (46.4, 66.7) |
| Gender, n (%) | |
| Female | 1468 (54.5) |
| Male | 1228 (45.5) |
| Ethnicity, n (%) | |
| White | 2256 (83.7) |
| South Asian | 255 (9.5) |
| Black | 73 (2.7) |
| Mixed or other | 88 (3.3) |
| Unknown | 24 (0.9) |
| Comorbidities, n (%) | |
| Obesity* | 1206 (44.7) |
| Hypertension | 1274 (47.3) |
| T2DM | 1104 (40.9) |
| CVD | 517 (19.2) |
| Metabolic syndrome† | 448 (16.6) |
| Chronic kidney disease, stages 3–5 | 290 (10.8) |
| Polycystic ovary syndrome | 94 (3.5) |
| DCSI‡ score, mean (SD) | 1.6 (1.7) |
| Smoking status, n (%) | |
| Non-smoker | 1437 (53.3) |
| Current smoker | 202 (7.5) |
| Ex-smoker | 746 (27.7) |
| Current or ex-smoker§ | 290 (10.8) |
| Unknown | 21 (0.8) |
| Townsend deprivation quintile, n (%) | |
| 1 (least deprived) | 521 (19.3) |
| 2 | 509 (18.9) |
| 3 | 500 (18.5) |
| 4 | 545 (20.2) |
| 5 (most deprived) | 619 (23.0) |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index score, n (%) | |
| 0 | 132 (4.9) |
| 1–2 | 1511 (56.0) |
| 3–4 | 848 (31.5) |
| ≥5 | 205 (7.6) |
| Elixhauser Comorbidity Index score, n (%) | |
| 0 | 573 (21.3) |
| 1–2 | 1048 (38.9) |
| 3–4 | 667 (24.7) |
| ≥5 | 408 (15.1) |
| Number of all-cause hospital admissions per patient in the year before index, mean (SD) | 2.6 (6.9) |
| All-cause healthcare costs per patient in the year before index, mean (SD) | £4786 (£5874) |
*BMI≥30 kg/m2; this differs from the overweight/obese group, which included BMI≥25 kg/m2.
†Defined as the presence of at least three of the following conditions: obesity based on BMI, diagnosed hypertension, lowered HDL-cholesterol (<40 mg/dL in men or <50 mg/dL in women), elevated triglycerides (>150 mg/dL), and T2DM.
‡Among those with evidence of diabetes (coded diagnosis or ≥2 prescriptions of an antidiabetic treatment (oral glucose-lowering drugs or insulin)).
§Defined where the status was ambiguous; it does not reflect the sum of the current and ex-smoker categories.
BMI, Body Mass Index; CVD, cardiovascular disease; DCSI, Diabetes Complications Severity Index; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus.