The DAI prospective study on macrovascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes. Characteristics of the study population.

A large multicenter cohort study, the DAI study, is being performed on patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who are followed by diabetic care units in Italy, to study the prevalence and incidence of myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease, coronary artery bypass, coronary angioplasty, cerebral thromboembolism, and amputations. The reference population consists of all patients visited at the participating units in the period September-December 1998 or March-June 1999. Patients were randomly chosen so as to create a sample representative of the diabetic population visited at the units. Overall, 201 of the approximately 650 Italian diabetic care units participated in the study and 24,094 patients were included in the study. The paper presents the protocol and the characteristics of the DAI study population.