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Fading social life may signal trouble in diabetes
Fading social life may signal trouble in diabetes -- Posted by gumbo on 08-29-04 18:07
Fading social life may signal trouble in diabetes
Jul 14 (Reuters Health) - Older diabetic patients who withdraw from their
normal social activities may be showing early signs of deteriorating health,
new study findings suggest.
Researchers found that among more than 5,200 people with diabetes, age 65
and older, those who said they had recently curtailed their leisure
activities were more likely than others to die or develop a disability over
the next two years.
None of the study participants had any apparent disabilities at the outset,
suggesting, the authors say, that a diabetic person's withdrawal from social
life may be one of the first signs of declining health.
Disability develops over time, lead study author Dr. Yong-Fang Kuo told
Reuters Health, and this study suggests "social disengagement" happens early
in the process.
She and her colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch in
Galveston report the findings in the July issue of the journal Diabetes
Care.
For the study, the researcher analyzed data from a survey of Medicare
managed care patients. They focused on results for 5,235 men and women who
at the study's start reported no problems with daily activities such as
bathing, dressing and eating, and who gave complete survey data again two
years later.
As part of the survey, participants were asked whether physical or emotional
problems had caused them to cut back on their usual social activities in the
past month. Kuo's team found that those who had curbed their activities had
a higher risk of dying or becoming disabled by the follow-up survey.
Overall, each 10-point increase in a participant's social functioning score
translated into an 18 percent lower risk of developing difficulties with
daily tasks. A similar pattern emerged for the risk of dying, according to
the report.
These relationships persisted regardless of factors such as age, smoking
habits and other health conditions like heart disease, stroke, arthritis and
depression. According to the authors, this suggests that a drop-off in
social activities might be a "forerunner" to loss of independence and
premature death.
Kuo said older diabetic patients and their doctors can discuss any changes
in social life as a way to catch declining health early on. These patients,
she and her colleagues conclude, should then be treated vigorously for any
modifiable physical or emotional health problems they may have.
SOURCE: Diabetes Care, July 2004.
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