THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MILD COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION AND DIABETES SELF-MANAGEMENT IN COMMUNITY DWELLING OLDER ADULTS

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic and non-communicable conditions that affect a large percentage of the population in developed as well as developing countries. According to the most recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2019, 37.3 million Americans (11.3%) aged 18 and older had diabetes, and 96 million people had prediabetes (CDC, 2021). This report illustrated that 14.5% of American Indians, 11.8% of Hispanics, 12.1% of non-Hispanic blacks, 9.5% of non-Hispanic Asians, and 7.4% of non-Hispanic whites had diabetes in the same year. The global prevalence of diabetes among adults in 2019 was estimated to be 9.3% (463 million people), rising to 10.2% (578 million) by 2030, and 10.9% (700 million) by 2045. Compared with rural areas and in low income countries, the prevalence of diabetes is higher in urban areas and high-income countries, with 10.8%, and 10.4 %, respectively (Saeedi et al., 2019). The results of the U.K. prospective diabetes study (UKPDS) showed that type 2 diabetes (T2D) is strongly linked with the risk of developing diabetic complications, including retinopathy, stroke, myocardial infarction, diabetic foot ulcers, nephropathy, neuropathy, psychological disorders, and dementia (Stratton et al., 2000). The investigators found that a 1% reduction in mean hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is associated with a reduction in risk of 21% for death, 14% for myocardial infarction, and 37% for microvascular complications such as retinopathy and neuropathy. A population-based study in the United States (U.S.) found that between 2016-2017, 0.5% of the American adult population had type 1 diabetes (T1D), and 8.5% had T2D (Xu et al., 2018). A recent study demonstrated that among U.S. adults with diagnosed diabetes, T1D accounted for 5.6% of cases, and 91.2% of the cases had T2D.