Abstract: ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess the impact of hypertension on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in diabetic mellitus（DM） patients.MethodsWe conducted a prospective cohort study on 8187 patients with DM from 10 1510 Kailuan Group employees, who underwent a health checkup between July 2006 and October 2007.After an average of 4.4 years’ follow-up, the incidences of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events were compared between diabetes with hypertension group （n=5402） and diabetes group （n=3145）.Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the effect of hypertension on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in DM patients.ResultsAt baseline, we found that age, systolic blood pressure（SBP）, diastolic blood pressure （DBP）, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and body mass index in patients with DM and hypertension were higher as compared to patients with DM （all P＜0.01）.During the mean follow-up of 4.4 years, there were a total of 278 cases of deaths, 364 cases of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events.The all-cause mortality （9.55 vs 7.09 per 1000 person-years）, cardiovascular disease mortality （3.12 vs 1.77 per 1000 person-years）, myocardial infarction morbility （3.39 vs 2.02 per 1000 person-years）, cerebral infarction morbility （8.58 vs 4.96 per 1000 person-years）, cerebral hemorrhage morbility （2.02 vs 0.89 per 1000 person-years）, and total cardiovascular cerebrovascular events morbility （13.83 vs 7.84 per 1000 person-years） in patients with DM and hypertension were higher than those of patients with DM （all P＜0.05）.The results of multifactor Cox proportional hazards regression model showed that the hazard risks of cerebral infraction and total cardiovascular cerebrovascular events of patients with DM and hypertension were respectively 1.55 （95% CI 1.15-2.08） times and 1.57（95% CI 1.24-1.98） times as much as those of patients with DM （all P＜0.05）.The hypertension-population attributable risk percentages of DM patients for all-cause death and all cardiovascular cerebrovascular events were 9.9% and 29.6% （all P＜0.05）, respectively.ConclusionHypertension may increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in patients with DM.