South Korea: A recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care has suggested an association of mild degrees of hyperglycemia and presence of comorbidities with incident dementia. This indicates that dementia can be prevented by intervention during the prodromal stage of chronic disease (e.g., prediabetes).
Kyungdo Han, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Soongsil University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, and colleagues carried out the study to examine the risk of incident dementia according to fasting glucose levels and presence of comorbidities.
For this purpose, the researchers selected 8,400,950 subjects aged ≥40 years who underwent health examinations in 2009–2010 using a health insurance claims database and the results of biennial health examinations in South Korea. They were followed until 2016. The participants' baseline characteristics were categorized by the presence of diabetes (yes/no) and glycemic status as normoglycemia, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), new-onset diabetes, or known diabetes (duration <5 years or ≥5 years). Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) was estimated for dementia occurrence in each category.
Based on the study, the researchers found the following:
During the observation period of 48,323,729 person-years, all-cause dementia developed in 353,392 subjects (4.2%).
Compared with normoglycemia, aHRs were 1.01 in IFG, 1.45 in new-onset diabetes, 1.32 in known diabetes <5 years, and 1.62 in known diabetes ≥5 years.
Associations between ischemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease with incident dementia were affected by the presence of diabetes.
Ischemic stroke showed a greater association with incident dementia than diabetes.
The researchers concluded, "mild degrees of hyperglycemia and presence of comorbidities were associated with incident dementia." "Intervention during the prodromal stage of chronic disease (e.g., prediabetes) could be considered for the prevention of dementia.
Reference:
Woo Jung Kim, Seo Jung Lee, Eun Lee, Eun Young Lee, Kyungdo Han; Risk of Incident Dementia According to Glycemic Status and Comorbidities of Hyperglycemia: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. Diabetes Care 2022; dc210957. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc21-0957