Diabetes Linked to Cognitive Impairment, Life Expectancy

A new study published in PLOS One suggests older adults with diabetes have higher odds of developing cognitive impairment and having a shorter life expectancy compared with non-diabetics, reports Healio . "The precise physiologic pathways linking diabetes and cognitive impairment remain largely undetermined," note the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research's Carlos Díaz-Venegas and colleagues. "Given that cognitive impairment is a major cause of loss of independence, presents a barrier to medication adherence, and results in extremely high care costs, policies aimed at improving outcomes among those with diabetes should be informed by the level of cognitive impairment in this population." The researchers used data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study to analyze age at onset of cognitive impairment and life expectancy with and without cognitive impairment by diabetes status among middle- and older-aged adults. Included were 13,687 individuals aged 50 to 74 contributing 136,367 person-years of follow-up from 2000 to 2012. For men, women, and for most ages, diabetics had a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment than non-diabetics. Moreover, the average cognition score for diabetics was 1.7 points lower and the prevalence of cognitive impairment was more than 10 percent higher versus non-diabetics. From age 50 on, diabetic men and women underwent a first incidence of cognitive impairment three and four years earlier, respectively, than those without diabetes. Diabetes decreased total life expectancy by five to seven years and cognitively healthy life expectancy by four to six years. In comparison with non-diabetics, diabetics lived about one year less with poor cognitive health.