Dementia and diabetes mellitus, or more specifically the hypoglycemia associated with the disease, are linked by a bidirectional relationship in the elderly population.This is shown by a study carried out by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and published in Jama Internal Medicine magazine.
For Dr. Kristine Yaffe, director of the research, “dementia commonly occurs in patients with diabetes mellitus and can negatively influence cognitive performance;And cognitive deterioration, in turn, can jeopardize diabetes and lead to the presentation of hypoglycemia. ”Diabetes and dementia
To carry out the study, the researchers evaluated 783 major with diabetes - the average age was established in 74 years.During the 12 years of follow -up, 7.8% of the participants (61 patients) suffered at least one hypoglycemia and 18.9% (148) developed dementia.
As regards the results, patients who experienced a hypoglycemic episode had a risk to twice to develop dementia compared to those who did not suffer from this complication of diabetes (34.4% compared to 17.6%).And in the same way, older adults with diabetes who developed dementia presented more than double risk of suffering hypoglycemia than those without cognitive deterioration (14.2% compared to 6.3%).
The association between diabetes mellitus and dementia was independent of other factors such as age, gender, educational level and comorbidities.For all these reasons, the authors conclude, "our results provide evidence of a reciprocal association between hypoglycemia and dementia in older adults with diabetes mellitus."
