Rymkiewicz E, et al. - Experts aimed to assess the differences in the clinical manifesta­tion and course of diabetes observed in older individu­als that ought to be translated into various options of treatment and management of the elderly diabetic patients, particularly early detection of disease complications due to its impact on the physical and mental health of elderly patients. Findings suggested a difference of elderly patients suffering from type 2 in numerous aspects than younger patients. They noted that the basic differences were in rela­tion to anthropometric indices and an average duration of the disease. In elderly patients, treatment of type 2 diabetes led to excessive control with respect to the carbohydrate metabolism however patients did not report hypoglycemia more frequently.

Methods

• The participants included in this study were hospitalized in the Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital No. 1 between the year 2012–2016.
• Authors divided the consecutively presenting patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes into 3 basic groups: group 1 aged 37–58 years (30 individuals), group 2 aged 70–79 years (30 individu­als) and group 3 aged ≥ 80 years (50 individuals), based on the medical records.
• Lack of logical verbal contact and substantial impairment of physical activity were the exclusion criteria, verified with the Katz Basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale.
• They established the duration of diabetes, the BMI and frequency of hypo­glycaemia, based on the medical history and documentation.
• Researchers determined the main parameters referring to metabolic control of type 2 diabetes mellitus (percent­age of glycated haemoglobin, lipid profile) and blood pressure measurement, among patients, as part of their stay and regardless of the study conducted,

Results

• Findings suggested the particular groups of patients differed in terms of the mean disease duration (p < 0.001), i.e. 5 ± 6.4 years in group 1, 16.1 ± 8.6 years in group 2 and 14.6 ± 9 years in group 3.
• They noted that there were statisti­cally significant inter-group differences in mean body weight (BW) and BMI (patients ≥ 80: BW — 70.7 ± 14.3 (kg), BMI: 27.5 ± 4.3 (kg/m²); 70–79 years of age group: BW: 77.1 ± 16.4 (kg), BMI: 28.9 ± 6 (kg/m²); group 1 (BW: 92.4 ± 21.4 (kg), BMI: 31.5 ± 7.0 (kg/m²).
• As per data, the best glucose control was observed amongst patients ≥ 80 (group 3), vs group 1 — 47 patients (84%) vs 4 patients (13.3%) (p < 0.001).
• Results demonstrated the percent­ages of HbA1c to be as follows: 8.7 ± 2.3 (%) in group 1, 7.3 ± 1.2 (%) in group 2 and 6.9 ± 0.9 in group 3, respectively (p < 0.001).
• There were no statistically significant differences in the blood pressure between particular groups of patients.
• In any of the studied groups, hypoglycaemia did not occur more frequently .