*2.3. Diseases and Endpoint Definitions*

Type 2 diabetes was defined as a self-reported physician diagnosis of diabetes, glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥ 6.5%, fasting glucose ≥ 7.8 mmol/L, or use of insulin or oral hypoglycemic medication. Prediabetes was defined as HbA1c 5.7%–6.4% (39–46 mmol/mol) or impaired fasting glucose (IFG) [fasting plasma glucose (FPG): 110–125 mg/dL (6.1–6.9 mmol/L)], or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) [Oral glucose tolerance test 2-h glucose value ≥ 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) but < 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) and FPG < 126 (7.0 mmol/L)]. Hypertension was diagnosed as a self-reported physician diagnosis of hypertension, use of antihypertensive drugs, or systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg (at least three times).

Participants who met at least one of the following criteria were diagnosed with hyperlipidemia: (1) elevated total cholesterol ≥ 200 mg/dL (5.18 mmol/L); (2) high triglyceride level (≥150 mg/dL); (3) low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) ≥ 130 mg/dL (3.37 mmol/L); (4) high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c) < 40 mg/dL (1.04 mmol/L) in men and 50 mg/dL (1.30 mmol/L) in women; and (5) use of cholesterol-lowering drugs. We set the time of follow-up time as 5 years. The primary endpoint of follow-up was all-cause death, which was extracted from the records of the National Death Index (NDI). The secondary endpoint was cardiovascular death, which was defined according to the International Classification of Diseases-10 codes (I00–I09, I11, I13, I20–I51) and was also extracted from NDI.
