The ADHOC Cohort comprised 3044 DM individuals, treated in 47 CHS primary care clinics, that underwent haptoglobin genotyping between 2 march, 2005 and 26 September 2006. Individuals were eligible for inclusion if they had DM and were 55 years of age or older. All treatment decisions, regarding all aspects of care and follow-up of the study participants, remained at the discretion of the individual's primary care physician, who was blinded to the individual's Hp type. Hp distribution was: Hp 1-1 285 (9.4%); Hp 2-1 1248 (41.0%); Hp 2-2 1511 (49.6%).

Hypothesis: strict glucose control (HbA1c<7%) reduces the rate of cardiovascular events only to diabetic patients with the Hp 2-2 phenotype. We also postulated that, since Hp 2-2 DM individuals are at an increased genetic susceptibility for cardiovascular disease (CVD), this unique cohort merits an investigation on the associations between various CVD risk variables and CVD events and establish whether any evident association was dependent of the individual's Hp type.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diabetic patients
• 55 years old or older at the time of ICARE initiation.
• Known haptoglobin genotype
• Signed informed consent for ICARE study and registry

Patients recruited from primary care clinics. All are diabetic patients 55 years old or older at the time of ICARE initiation (2005).