Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in elderly people in Canada: report from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging

AIMS: to estimate the age-specific prevalence of diabetes mellitus in elderly people in Canada, and to examine the effect of method of ascertainment on the estimation of prevalence. METHOD: three measures of diabetes were used in a secondary analysis of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging--a 1991 nation-wide cross-sectional study of the prevalence of dementia in a sample of 10,263 elderly subjects (aged 65-106 years). RESULTS: of community-dwelling subjects, 10.3% reported diabetes. Supplementing this information with clinical reports and random plasma glucose measurements increased the prevalence to 12.0% in the community, 17.5% in institutions and 12.4% overall. CONCLUSION: diabetes is common in elderly people, although the prevalence falls in the very elderly. The method of ascertainment influences estimation of prevalence.