Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in the elderly approaches 50% in some community-dwelling cohorts. We examined whether IFG is associated with a higher burden of disease, cardiovascular risk factors and circulating low-grade inflammation than in normoglycemic elderly people.

Methods/Design: Cross-sectional data of 929 participants of the Sydney Memory and Aging Study (MAS) were examined. MAS is a population-derived cohort of community-dwelling adults aged 70–90 years. Normoglycemic (NG) and IFG participants were compared using contingency tables and the Chi-square test. Logistic regression and ANCOVA analyses were performed adjusted for age, sex and Body Mass Index (BMI).

Results: Mean age was 78.6 (±4.7) years; 47% had IFG, 12% had diagnosed type 2 diabetes and 4% previously undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. There were proportionately more males with IFG compared to NG (49% vs 37% males, P<0.001). As expected, BMI was higher in IFG compared to NG subjects (27.4 kg/m² vs 26.1 kg/m², P<0.001). Hypertension and hyperlipidemia was equally distributed (62% and 60% in IFG vs. 57% and 56% in NG), although lipid-lowering drugs had been more frequently prescribed in IFG (55% vs 42%, P<0.001). After adjustment for covariates, rates of stroke, cardiac disease, myocardial infarction, kidney disease or any cancer were similar between participants with IFG and normal fasting glucose. However, PAI-1 (83.7 vs. 79.8 ng/ml, P<0.05), IL-8 (21.8 vs. 18.6 pg/ml, P<0.01), IL-12p70 (3.64 vs 3.40 pg/ml, P<0.05) and products of oxidative metabolism (urate [0.35 vs. 0.32 mmol/l, P<0.001] and malondialdehyde [13.4 vs. 12.8 μmol/l, P<0.001]), were all significantly higher in IFG.

Conclusion: In this cohort of community-dwelling elderly, IFG was not associated with an increased burden of disease cross-sectionally. Prospective data are required to elucidate whether the moderately increased markers of inflammation accompanying IFG in this population adversely affect health outcomes during residual life span.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.