The study found that high blood sugar levels at an early age may be an indicator of an increased risk of developing dementia.
The findings suggest that preventing the condition from progressing from pre-diabetes to a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes could mean a significant reduction in future cases of dementia, according to the researchers.
Prediabetes is defined as a condition in which blood sugar levels are high but have not yet crossed the threshold for type 2 diabetes.
Prediabetes is associated with a higher risk of developing diabetes, but is also independently associated with other health conditions.
Most patients who develop diabetes for the first time go through this stage of prediabetes.
To examine the risk of dementia associated with prediabetes, the authors analyzed data from individuals from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Community Study (ARIC) in the United States.
According to the study, the risk of developing dementia was three times higher in those who developed type 2 diabetes before the age of 60.
And if diabetes was diagnosed between the ages of 60 and 69, the rate of dementia was 73%.
And when people were diagnosed with diabetes between the ages of 70 and 79, the incidence of dementia dropped to 23%.
The results, published in the journal Diabetologia, show that at age 80 and older, having diabetes was not associated with an increased risk of dementia.
Professor Selwyn said: “Prediabetes is associated with a higher risk of dementia, but this risk is attributed to the development of diabetes. An earlier age of onset of diabetes has also been associated with an increased risk of dementia.”
The researchers added: “Prediabetes is associated with a risk of developing dementia, but this risk is attributed to the development of diabetes. The onset of diabetes at an early age is most associated with dementia. Thus, preventing or delaying the progression of prediabetes to diabetes would significantly reduce the burden of future dementia.”
A study by PhD student Jiaqi Ho and Professor Elizabeth Selvin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States and colleagues assessed the association of prediabetes with risk of dementia before and after adjusting for the subsequent development of type 2 diabetes.
The researchers obtained the latest data on the association of dementia with diabetes by following the case of 11,656 people without diabetes, including 2,330 (20%) with prediabetes, for more than 3 decades.
Source: Independent
