Study links Type 1 diabetes and dementia
A study published in Neurology has linked Type 1 diabetes and dementia.
Researchers analysed 283,772 people with an average age of 64 and followed them for over 2 years. Of these people, 5,442 had type 1 diabetes and 51,511 had type 2 diabetes. They found that people with type 1 diabetes were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia. People with type 2 diabetes were about twice as likely, although researchers stress the findings show an association rather than a direct cause.
Jennifer Weuve, lead author of the study from the Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, says:
“As advances in medical care have extended the lives of people with type 1 diabetes, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand the relation of type 1 diabetes to the risk of dementia. We have known that type 2 diabetes is linked to an increased risk of dementia, but this new research suggests that, unfortunately, the association may be even stronger for those with type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is not common, so this condition accounts for a small fraction of all dementia cases. But for the growing number of people with type 1 diabetes who are over 65 years old, these findings underscore the urgency of understanding the ways in which type 1 diabetes influences dementia risk and how we can prevent or delay it.”
You can read the study here: https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214805