Older diabetics struggle with blood sugar control

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rising in the U.S. elderly population, and nearly half of affected individuals fail to adequately control their blood sugar, new research shows.

"The current study's findings, in context of the projected increase in the elderly population, have critical public health and healthcare cost implications," Dr. Dong-Churl Suh, of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, and colleagues warn in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Suh's team assessed changes over time in treatment and control of diabetes using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 1999 to 2004, and compared findings with those obtained in NHANES III conducted between 1988 and 1994.

They found that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes increased significantly, from 12.0 percent to 14.1 percent. Diabetic subjects were more likely to be classified as obese during the latter survey period (37 percent vs. 51 percent).

They also found that the proportion of elderly patients being treated for their diabetes increased, diabetes control improved, and the proportion of patients with high blood pressure and high cholesterol declined.

Still, only 55 percent of diabetic patients achieved adequate blood sugar control between 1999 and 2004.

The researchers' analyses showed that blood sugar control was better in patients without other co-morbid illnesses, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Suh and colleagues caution that as duration of diabetes increases in older patients, and multiple therapies become necessary to maintain good blood sugar control, drug contraindications may limit options in elderly people, "putting them at greater risk of functional and cognitive impairment."