Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in elderly people in Canada: report from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.
OBJECTIVE
to estimate the age-specific prevalence of diabetes mellitus in elderly people in Canada, and to examine the effect of method of ascertainment on the estimation of prevalence.


METHODS
three measures of diabetes were used in a secondary analysis of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging--a 1991 nation-wide cross-sectional study of the prevalence of dementia in a sample of 10,263 elderly subjects (aged 65-106 years).


RESULTS
of community-dwelling subjects, 10.3% reported diabetes. Supplementing this information with clinical reports and random plasma glucose measurements increased the prevalence to 12.0% in the community, 17.5% in institutions and 12.4% overall.


CONCLUSIONS
diabetes is common in elderly people, although the prevalence falls in the very elderly. The method of ascertainment influences estimation of prevalence.
Rockwood
K
K
Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, 3 Dalhousie University, Halifax, 5955 Jubilee Road, Halifax, NS B3H 2EI, Canada. rockwood@is.dal.ca
Tan
M
M
Phillips
S
S
McDowell
I
I
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening