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. 2024 Aug;38(8):108815.
doi: 10.1016/j.jdiacomp.2024.108815. Epub 2024 Jul 14.

Sex differences in association of joint glycemic, blood pressure and lipid control and two-year risk of falls among older adults with diabetes

Namitha Mary Varghese  1 , Jithin Sam Varghese  2
Affiliations

Sex differences in association of joint glycemic, blood pressure and lipid control and two-year risk of falls among older adults with diabetes

Namitha Mary Varghese et al. J Diabetes Complications. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Aims: To characterize the risk of falls among males and females by joint glycemic, blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol control among older adults (≥65 years) with diagnosed diabetes in USA.

Methods: Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2006-2019), we studied the association of joint glycemic (HbA1c < 7.5 %), BP (systolic <140 and diastolic <90 mmHg) and cholesterol (total < 200 mg/dL) control with two-year risk of falls. We estimated risk ratios (RR) to describe the associations for joint ABC control and independent biomarker control by sex, using modified Poisson regressions after adjusting for known individual and household risk factors.

Results: The analytic sample consisted of 4509 observations from 2829 older adults (54.7 % female) with a mean age of 72.2 (SD: 6.6) years and duration of diabetes of 9.9 years. Joint ABC control was not associated with risk of falls among females but was associated with lower risk among males (0.91 [95%CI: 0.81-1.02]). Furthermore, achievement of glycemic control (0.85 [95%CI: 0.73-0.98]) and BP control (0.89 [95%CI: 0.79-1.01]) were associated with lower risk but cholesterol control (1.15 [95%CI: 0.99, 1.34]) was associated with higher risk of falls among males.

Conclusions: Joint achievement of glycemic, BP and cholesterol targets may prevent falls among older males. Future studies among people with diabetes should consider biomarker control as a preventive factor for falls.

Keywords: Aging; Diabetes control; Microvascular complications.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Flowchart for analytic sample Participants living in nursing homes were excluded since biomarkers were not collected for these individuals.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Trends in falls and diabetes control among community-dwelling older adults in USA Panel A is the self-reported prevalence of falls among nationally representative samples of adults 65 years or older from USA. All estimates and 95 % confidence intervals are for self-reported falls in the last 2 years. Lower panels are the prevalence of diabetes control (HbA1c <7.5 %, blood pressure < 140/90 mmHg and total cholesterol <200 mg/dL) for total (Panel B), male (Panel C) and female (Panel D) older adults.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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