Diabetes and Dementia in 3 H-70 cohorts in Gothenburg

Abstract

A total number of 2498 individuals 70 years old were randomly elicited in Gothenburg, n=966 in 1971, n=1028 in 1976 and n=504 in 2000. Blood glucose levels in the 3 cohorts were 5.53 mmol/l for 1971 cohort, 5.30 mmol/l for 1976 and 5.83 mmol/l for 2000. Blood glucose levels declined when the cohorts were examined again with 75 years and 79 years. Looking at DM individuals, blood glucose levels at age 70 for the cohort 1971 was 8,90 mmol/l (n=54), for cohort 1976 of 8,91 mmol/l (n=64) and for cohort 1930 of 8,45 mmol/l (n=57). A strong correlation between Diabetes mellitus (DM) and body mass index (BMI) existed: BMI <25 had a frequency of DM in 6,0%, for BMI =25<30 had 6,4% DM, for BMI =30<35 had 10,6% and BMI >=35 had 23,1% DM. HbA1c mean was 40,68 (median 38,0) for all participants and 53,12 (median 51,0) in DM. The correlation of HbA1c with BMI did not reach statistical significance (p=0,09). In 2009 in DM individuals HbA1c was considerably higher in cerebrovascular dementia (62,3 mmol/l) than in DM with Alzheimer dementia (52,3 mmol/l) or in non-dementia (52,5 mmol/l) but numbers were too small for significance (rank test pooled 0,14; Satterthwaite 0,22). The proportion of DM was higher in the cerebrovascular group (8 of 18; 44%) than in the Alzheimer dementia (9 of 38; 27%) or in non-dementia (83 of 600; 13,8%). This prospective study showed an association between DM with cerebrovascular dementia, whereas the association with Alzheimer dementia was weaker.