Diabetics Face Higher Disability Risk

A new review published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology finds that those with diabetes are 50 percent more likely to be disabled than those without the disease.
Disability in the review was defined as having trouble walking, using a telephone, managing finances, shopping, and even bathing, dressing, or eating.
"We found that diabetes increased the risk of disability by 50 percent to 80 percent compared to those without diabetes, and this result was consistent across all types of disability," said review lead author Anna Peeters, head of obesity and population health at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia.
"The result of this study are particularly important in the context of an aging population and increasing diabetes prevalence over time. In combination, this suggests a substantial increase in the burden of disability in the elderly in coming decades," Peeters added.
Peeters said that her research team was unsure the exact correlation between diabetes and disability. They did control for factors like obesity, sedentary lifestyle and they still found a link between the two. One possibility might be the inflammation associated with high blood sugar levels, or complications from diabetes, like heart disease, kidney problems, and limb amputations.
Studies in the past comparing diabetes and disability have had mixed results, with some showing no link, and other showing a doubling risk of disability. Peeters and her team looked at 26 studies that compared the risk of disability in people with and without diabetes. The types of diabetes were not broken down in this review.
The probability of someone with diabetes having a mobility problem, like walking, was 71 percent higher than someone without the disease. As well, trouble using the phone, shopping, or using transportation was 65 percent higher. The odds someone with diabetes would have problems eating, dressing, or bathing was an astonishing 82 percent higher.
Few studies have looked at how management of diabetes affects disability, so Peeters is unsure how well-managed and controlled diabetes affects disability. However, studies showing that poor control of blood sugar increases disability risk would corroborate their hypothesis.
"We know that good control of diabetes decreases the risk of known major complications and those complications are, in turn, associated with future disability. It is therefore highly likely that good diabetes control will decrease one's risk of disability," Peeters concluded.
Reference: US News Health
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