title: [Diabetes in elderly subjects].
abstract: Problems raised by diabetes in subjects above 65 years of age are of three kinds: diagnostic, therapeutic and social. Passed the age of 40, there is a regular physiological increase of glycaemia, and this must be taken into account to diagnose diabetes and to set the threshold for therapeutic intervention. The treatment of elderly people has its specific imperatives, due to feeding habits and age-related changes in hepatic and renal functions. The presence of complications, sometimes multiple, explains that the patient often takes several drugs, which increases the risk of interaction between these drugs and oral antidiabetics. The therapeutic objectives must be adjusted to these imperatives, and neither the diabetic... nor his doctor must be afraid of insulin. The social status of elderly patients must not be neglected: the help of private nurses and the training in diabetology of the patient's entourage often permit to postpone the date of institutionalization.
authors.affiliation: Service de médecine B, hôpital Lariboisière, Paris.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chanson
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Guillausseau
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
vernacular_title: Le diabète du sujet âgé.