Study Points to Factors That May Raise Dementia Risk in Diabetes Patients

Diabetes is a known risk factor for dementia. Now some of the major factors that determine whether a diabetes patient is at risk of developing dementia have been identified by Lieza Exalto, M.D., of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, and colleagues based on follow-up data for some 30,000 patients with type 2 diabetes. The factors they identified are older age, a lower level of education, a history of depression, diabetic foot deformities, acute severely irregular blood sugar levels, and cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, and microvascular conditions.

Using these factors, the researchers developed a clinically practical summary risk score that can be used to provide an estimate of the 10-year dementia risk for individuals with type 2 diabetes. They then validated the score in some 2,400 diabetes patients.

"The risk score can be used to increase vigilance for cognitive deterioration and for selection of high-risk patients for participation in clinical trials," the researchers wrote in their study report in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

More information about the link between dementia and diabetes can be found in the Psychiatric News article "Dementia Risk Rises When Depression, Diabetes Comorbid." Also see the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences for more research on this topic.

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