Placing older adults into one of six risk groups based on their cardiometabolic health can make it easier to detect if they are living with type 2 diabetes, a recent study has claimed.
This comes after prior research has already confirmed that these risk groups can successfully identify type 2 diabetes in middle-aged people.
Older adults are most likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes if placed in the special risk group, which is characterised by the combination of a measure of silent inflammatory processes, a high inflammatory load and a high risk of type 2 diabetes.
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Otherwise known as clusters, the six risk groups can also identify complications of type 2 diabetes, such as chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and nerve damage.
A total of 843 older adults took part in the investigation and were each classified into one of six clusters.
People in the very low risk cluster (two) were less at risk of developing cardiovascular disease and had the lowest inflammation levels, the study has reported.
Meanwhile, those in the high risk with insulin-resistant fatty liver cluster (five) exhibited the highest inflammation levels and disease burden, the research has revealed.
New cases of type 2 diabetes were most common among participants in clusters three, four, five and six in comparison to those in cluster two, the results have shown.
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Dr Christian Herder said: “The results illustrate the importance of early differentiation of risk groups – even at an advanced age.”
Dr Michael Roden concluded: “This study underlines the individual differences in the risk of diabetes and diabetes-related diseases and thus edges the way to more precise early detection and prevention, even at an older age.”
Read more in the journal Cardiovascular Diabetology.
