Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health believe that prediabetes in older people cannot be used to judge the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The study involved 3.4 thousand people, who at the time of inclusion in the project in 2011-2013. were between 71 and 90 years old and none of them had diabetes. The next time, scientists measured the blood sugar level of subjects in 2016-2017.
As expected, at the start of the study, prediabetes, defined as mildly elevated morning fasting blood glucose, was found in 59% of the subjects. The same diagnosis was made by 44% of the subjects using another blood test - for glycosylated hemoglobin.
But in 2016-2017. diabetes developed only in 8% of the group with prediabetes identified as a result of a fasting glucose test, and 9% of the group with prediabetes, who donated blood for glycosylated hemoglobin.
At the same time, in 44% of the first group and 13% of the second group, the analyzes improved so much that the diagnosis of prediabetes was removed from them. Another 16% and 19% of these groups died from other causes.
“It seems that in older adults, a diagnosis of prediabetes may not be a reliable marker for predicting type 2 diabetes,” the researchers point out.
