Depression may Raise Risk of Mortality in elderly T2DM patients: Study
It is currently estimated that 8-9% of adults worldwide have type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and a substantial increase has been observed in recent years. DM is recognized as an important determinant of premature death, disability, morbidity, and increased health costs.
In a recent study, researchers have found that depression was associated with a higher adjusted all-cause mortality risk in the Spanish cohort of older T2DM patients. The study findings were published in the Diabetes Research & Clinical Practice on May 13, 2021.
The relationship between depression and the presence of diabetes and its complications appears to be bi‐directional. However, little is known about the effect of depression on mortality in older chronic patients with diabetes mellitus from Mediterranean countries. Therefore, Dr M.A. Salinero-Fort and his team conducted a study to assess the effect of depression on all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Diadema study was an 8 year, Spanish population-based cohort study of 3,923 T2DM patients. The researchers diagnosed depression according to the MINI 5.0.0 questionnaire, physician-diagnosis or following antidepressant therapy for at least two months. The researchers analyzed mortality rates/10,000 person-years. They further compared survival according to baseline depression with Kaplan-Meier estimates and the log-rank test and performed Cox proportional hazard model analyses.
Key findings of the study were:
- The researchers diagnosed baseline depression in 22.1% of participants.
- After a follow-up of 8 years, mortality was higher in patients with depression (31.9% vs 26.9%), with a significant poor survival rate (median survival 7.4 years vs 7.8 years).
- The adjusted mortality hazard ratio for depression was 1.40.
- They also found the strongest predictive factors, which include:
◊ Age >75 years (HR=6.04),
◊ Insulin use (HR=2.37),
◊ Lower limb amputation (HR=1.99),
◊ Heart failure (HR=1.94), and
◊ Male gender (HR=1.90).
The authors concluded, "In a Spanish cohort of older T2DM patients, depression was associated with a higher mortality risk. More efforts are needed to minimize the influence of depression on mortality in people with T2DM and to implement measures that allow its early diagnosis and effective treatment."
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