Prediabetes: The younger you are, the higher the risk of dementia – CTV
May 27, 2023
People who develop prediabetes when they’re younger are likely to have a higher risk for dementia in later life, a new U.S. study has found.
Prediabetes exists when blood sugar levels are higher than optimal but not yet high enough for the patient to be medically diagnosed with diabetes. Unfortunately, millions of Americans younger than age 60 have prediabetes — and many aren’t even aware.
“Prediabetes is associated with dementia risk, but this risk is explained by the development of diabetes,” said authors Elizabeth Selvin, a professor of epidemiology, and Jiaqi Hu, a doctoral student, in a news statement. They are both at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The study, published Wednesday in Diabetologia, analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. It enrolled people between the ages of 45 and 64 in four U.S. counties: Forsyth County, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; suburbs of Minneapolis; and Washington County, Maryland.
