Fading social life may signal trouble in diabetes

	Tweet

Older diabetic patients who withdraw from their normal social activities may be showing early signs of deteriorating health, new study findings suggest.

Researchers found that among more than 5,200 people with diabetes, age 65 and older, those who said they had recently curtailed their leisure activities were more likely than others to die or develop a disability over the next two years.

None of the study participants had any apparent disabilities at the outset, suggesting, the authors say, that a diabetic person’s withdrawal from social life may be one of the first signs of declining health.

Disability develops over time, lead study author Dr. Yong-Fang Kuo told Reuters Health, and this study suggests “social disengagement” happens early in the process.

She and her colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston report the findings in the July issue of the journal Diabetes Care.

For the study, the researcher analyzed data from a survey of Medicare managed care patients. They focused on results for 5,235 men and women who at the study’s start reported no problems with daily activities such as bathing, dressing and eating, and who gave complete survey data again two years later.

As part of the survey, participants were asked whether physical or emotional problems had caused them to cut back on their usual social activities in the past month. Kuo’s team found that those who had curbed their activities had a higher risk of dying or becoming disabled by the follow-up survey.

Overall, each 10-point increase in a participant’s social functioning score translated into an 18 percent lower risk of developing difficulties with daily tasks. A similar pattern emerged for the risk of dying, according to the report.

These relationships persisted regardless of factors such as age, smoking habits and other health conditions like heart disease, stroke, arthritis and depression. According to the authors, this suggests that a drop-off in social activities might be a “forerunner” to loss of independence and premature death.

Kuo said older diabetic patients and their doctors can discuss any changes in social life as a way to catch declining health early on. These patients, she and her colleagues conclude, should then be treated vigorously for any modifiable physical or emotional health problems they may have.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, July 2004. 

RELATED STORIES:
Major depression more than doubles risk of dementia among adults with diabetes   Drug ups survival in diabetics with heart failure   Can fish for dinner lead to diabetes?   Insulin sensitivity may explain link between obesity, memory problems   Low-fat dairy foods may lower diabetes risk in men   Testosterone Replacement for Men with Low Testosterone Improves Liver Function, Metabolic Syndrome   Insulin pump benefits very young diabetics   Study may mark advance in diabetes transplant care   Fight Childhood Obesity to Help Prevent Diabetes, Say WHO & IDF   Intranasal insulin may protect against diabetes   Eating red meat ups diabetes risk in older women   Blood infection more likely in diabetics

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]