Pharmacological treatment for diabetes and cognitive impairment in older diabetic adults

OBJECTIVES: As diabetes and cognitive impairment are common health issues in the elderly population, identifying ways to decrease the risk of both diabetes and cognitive impairment is important. However, little is known about the impact of pharmacological treatment for diabetes on cognitive impairment in elderly with diabetes. This study examined the association between pharmacological treatment for diabetes and cognitive impairment in older diabetic adults.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study using the nationally representative 2010 Health and Retirement Study. A weighted logistic regression was performed to obtain likelihood of having poor cognitive function while controlling for use of pharmacological treatment for diabetes, sex, race, education level, hypertension/ high blood pressure, smoking, and use of insulin.

Results: Of the weighted 440,572 eligible subjects with diabetes (unweighted N=96), 306,626 subjects (69.6%) took oral diabetes medications. Weighted logistic regression revealed that pharmacological treatment for diabetes was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment. Elderly with diabetes with medications were 1.37 times and 2.55 times more likely to have higher total word recall (OR=1.37, 95% CI=1.34-1.40) and mental score (OR=2.55, 95% CI=2.48-2.62) than those without medications, respectively. Similarly, those with medications were 2.16 times more likely to have higher total cognition score than those without medications (OR=2.16, 95% CI=2.11-2.22).

Conclusion: Pharmacological treatment for diabetes was associated with higher odds of better cognitive score. Therefore, further studies can explore the potential of the impact of pharmacological treatment on preventing cognitive impairment in the older diabetic adult population.