Clinical Significance and Prevalence of Frailty Syndrome in Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of frailty in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and to investigate the relations between frailty and T2DM. One hundred twenty-five patients with T2DM diagnosis were included in the study. According to the Fried's frailty scale, the patients were grouped as frail, pre-frail and non-frail, and their prevalence was determined. Demographic data, anthropometric measurements and laboratory data were compared between the groups. The harmonic mean of the group sizes is used as the group size was not equal. The frail patients’ number was 11 (8%), the pre-frail patients’ number was 83 (66%), and the non-frail patients’ number was 31 (26%) in the study. The median age of the frail group was 65 (51-88) years, the pre-frail group was 61 (50-78) years, and the non-frail group was 61 (50-80) years (p = 0.15). There was no statistically significant difference between in body mass index, diabetes duration, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and co-morbidity between the groups (p> 0.05 for all). Fasting plasma glucose, HbA1c, triglyceride, hand grip strength and gait speed were statistically significantly different between groups (p< 0.05 for all). Impaired glucose regulation, low gait speed and hand grip strength test were detected in patients with pre-frail T2DM. Patients with T2DM are candidates for frailty at an earlier age.