PREVALENCE OF DIABETES-MELLITUS IN AN ELDERLY FINNISH POPULATION

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was investigated in a northern Fin nish community population aged 70 years or over. Of the eligible 483 p ersons, 78.5 % (n = 379) took part in the study. The presence of diabe tes mellitus was assessed by questions about the participants' previou sly diagnosed diabetes and 2 h oral glucose tolerance tests, which wer e performed according to the current WHO criteria. Only the participan ts who were on oral hypoglycaemic drugs or insulin treatment were excl uded from the 2 h oral glucose tolerance tests. In the total populatio n the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes was 22.0 % among men and 28.2 % am ong women; the difference between sexes was not significant (women's r isk ratio (RR) 1.3, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.9-1.9). Among thos e aged 80 years or over the risk ratio for women was 11.3 compared wit h men (95 % CI 1.6-79.5). Among men the prevalence was higher in the a ge group 70-79 years compared with those aged 80 years or over (RR 8.1 , 95 % CI 1.2-57.1). By contrast, among women, diabetes was less commo n among those aged 70-79 years compared with those aged 80 years or ov er (RR 0.6, 95 % CI 0.4-1.0). The proportion of undiagnosed diabetes w as clearly over one-third among men and just over one-third among wome n. Of men, 31.9 % suffered from impaired glucose tolerance; the corres ponding figure for women was 35.3 %. The comparatively high proportion of undiagnosed diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance among elderly people lends support to the more frequent use of the 2 h glucose toler ance test in clinical practice.