Demographic, lifestyle, and health characteristics of older adults with prediabetes in England.

Abstract

To describe the demographic, lifestyle, and health characteristics of older adults with prediabetes compared to those with normal glucose levels or diabetes. Participants were from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging 2004-2005 (n=4168). Statistical analyses examined differences between people with prediabetes and 1) people with normal glucose levels and 2) people with diabetes. Design-based F-statistics and t-tests tested differences for each characteristic individually and multinomial logistic regression examined adjusted associations. Survey weighting and cluster information was used to generalize to the older English population. Compared to people with normal glucose levels, people with prediabetes were older (RR=1.05 95% CI 1.04-1.07), more likely to be employed (RR=1.27 95% CI 1.01-1.60), more likely to smoke (RR=2.21 95% CI 1.74-2.80), and had higher BMIs (RR=1.08 95% CI 1.06-1.10). Compared to people with diabetes, people with prediabetes were more likely to be women (RR=2.12 95% CI 1.57-2.86), more likely to be employed (RR=1.54 95% CI 1.02-2.33), had lower BMIs (RR=0.95 95% CI 0.93-0.98), were less likely to have a cardiovascular condition (RR=0.34 95% CI 0.24-0.47), and had higher self-rated health (χ(2)=26.08, p<0.001). Older adults with prediabetes have a unique set of characteristics that may inform prevention or intervention schemes.