Glycemic control comp-arable in older and younger type 2 diabetics
Från J Am Geriatr Soc 2000;48:264-267,340-341.

   Although less than half of elderly type 2 diabetics achieve adequate glycemic control, this figure is not significantly different from that in younger subjects, researchers report in the March issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The researchers, led by Dr. Ronald I. Shorr at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, investigated 1,482 type 2 diabetics enrolled in the Third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES III) between 1988 and 1994.

    After controlling for race, gender, education and duration of diabetes, age was not significantly associated with glycosylate hemoglobin levels or fasting plasma glucose levels. The proportion with an HbA1c of less than 7% in the age groups 20-54, 55-64, 65-74 and 75+ was 45.6%, 42.7%, 38.3% and 55.2% respectively. - Because there is some evidence that older persons are undertreated for other conditions, I had expected worse glycemic control among the elderly. [But] the data did not support this hypothesis, Dr Shorr commented to Reuters Health.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Jeffrey B. Halter at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, says that the study confirms and extends previous studies, but clinicians "can take little solace in the finding that the percentage of older people with poor control may be slightly less than in other age groups."

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