Study of Occurrence of Chronic Complications of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Elderly Patients

Background: Chronic complications are the major outcome of type 2 diabetes mellitus, progress over years
and reduce the quality of life of patients, incur heavy burdens to the health care system, and increase
diabetic mortality.
Aims: This study was done to describe the occurrence of chronic complications among elderly type 2
diabetic patients.
Methods: This cross sectional hospital based study was carried out, among type 2 elderly diabetic patients
with history of diabetes for >5yrs duration. Each patient was screened for diabetic complications,
hypertension, and other co-morbidities. Standard protocols were used to make diagnosis of retinopathy,
neuropathy, nephropathy, peripheral vascular disease and cardio-vascular complications. Data analysis was
carried out using standard statistical techniques.
Results: Out of 100 elderly diabetic patients, 52 were females and 48 were males. The occurrences for
diabetes-related complications were retinopathy (40%), nephropathy (30%), ischemic heart disease (15%),
neuropathy (50%), and peripheral vascular disease (6%). The diabetic patients with chronic complications
had a poor glycaemic control with HbA1c > 8.0%.
Conclusions: Chronic complications are highly prevalent among type 2 diabetic elderly patients, the
glycaemic control of the diabetic complications was poor, and future efforts should be directed at intensive
blood glucose control, to prevent and minimize the occurrence of complications.