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ObjectiveTo determine the impact of preexisting diabetes mellitus on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) by conducting a meta-analysis.MethodsPubMed and Embase databases were comprehensively searched for relevant studies publishing until May 19, 2022. Cohort studies or post-hoc analyses of clinical trials that investigated the association of diabetes mellitus with cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in AF patients were included.ResultsA total of 21 studies with 526,136 AF patients were identified. The pooled prevalence of diabetes mellitus in patients with AF was 26%. The summary multivariable-adjusted risk ratio (RR) of all-cause mortality was 1.37 (95% confidence intervals [CIs] 1.23–1.53) for patients with diabetes versus those without diabetes. Moreover, diabetes mellitus was also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality (RR 1.46; 95% CI 1.34–1.58). Stratified analyses suggested that the impact of diabetes on all-cause and cardiovascular mortality was consistently observed in each named subgroup.ConclusionThe presence of diabetes mellitus in patients with AF is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, even after adjustment for important confounding factors.