title: Mortality in an elderly type 2 diabetic patients' cohort who attended a self-management educational workshop.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the all-cause mortality rate in elderly type 2 diabetic patients who attended self-management educational workshops compared with those who did not.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study in a Health Maintenance Organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Patients older than 64 years with type 2 diabetes before December 2003 conformed the cohort followed from January 01, 2001 until death, censored date or December 31, 2007. All-cause mortality rate was ascertained from vital status reports and assessed according to educational workshops attendance. Results were adjusted for baseline variables, co-morbidities and A1C levels using Cox proportional hazards model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  1730 elderly diabetic patients were included, yielding 8685 person/years of observation. Educated and non-educated groups were similar regarding sex, co morbidities, diabetes duration, prevalent cases, insulin treatment, tobacco use, clinical and laboratory measures. All-cause mortality rate was 5.53 (4.04-5.07) per 100 person/years for non-attendants and 3.06 (2.39-3.91) for attendants. Crude hazard ratio for exposure to workshops was 0.68 (0.52-0.88); p = 0.004. After adjustment, attendance to diabetic workshops decreased its effect from 33% to 18% (HR 0.82; 95%CI: 0.61-1.08).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Workshop attendants had 33% lower all-cause crude mortality rate at 6 years of follow-up. More research is needed to explore whether these findings are explained by education itself, behavioural or personal characteristics of workshop attendants, the intensified participation in an integral diabetes programme, or a combination of them.
authors.affiliation: Medical Programs and Epidemiology, Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina. gaston.perman@hospitalitaliano.org.ar
authors.forename: Gastón
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perman
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beratarrechea
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Aliperti
authors.forename: León
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Litwak
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Figar
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Langlois
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002423:Cause of Death; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012648:Self Care; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D008055:Lipids; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human