title: Impact of glucose metabolism and birth size on cognitive performance in elderly subjects.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to investigate the impact of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance on cognitive performance and to explore the association between birth weight and cognitive performance among diabetic subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a standard oral glucose tolerance test and a computerised test for assessment of cognitive performance (CogState) in 1243 subjects; 173 of them had type 2 diabetes. At the time of cognitive testing the mean age of the subjects was 64 years. Subjects with type 1 diabetes or a history of stroke were excluded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects with known diabetes performed significantly poorer in cognitive tasks measuring visual attention, working memory and episodic learning than subjects with normal glucose tolerance. Subjects with newly diagnosed diabetes or milder impairments in glucose regulation did not differ from the normoglycaemic group. A low birth weight enhanced the association between diabetes and poor performance in the working memory and episodic learning tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Poorer cognitive performance was associated with known type 2 diabetes but not with newly diagnosed diabetes or milder impairments in glucose regulation. Low birth weight was found to be an additional vulnerability factor enhancing cognitive decline in diabetic subjects.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health and Welfare, Department of Chronic Disease Prevention, Diabetes Prevention Unit, Helsinki, Finland. maria.paile@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paile-Hyvärinen
authors.forename: Katri
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Räikkönen
authors.forename: Eero
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kajantie
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Darby
authors.forename: Hilkka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ylihärsilä
authors.forename: Minna K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Salonen
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Osmond
authors.forename: Johan G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Eriksson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D001724:Birth Weight; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D003071:Cognition; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003925:Diabetic Angiopathies / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose