About 1 in 5 older adults with diabetes who didn’t have functional limitations before the pandemic developed them during that time. The same happened to 1 in 8 of older adults without diabetes, according to a report published Tuesday in Canadian Journal of Diabetes.
Functional limitations affect mobility such as climbing stairs, walking and standing up.
“Functional status is an important predictor of longevity and quality of life among older adults, and individuals with diabetes face a higher risk of functional decline than the general population,” Andie MacNeil, an author as well as a research assistant at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) and the Institute for Life Course and Aging at the University of Toronto, said in a statement. “Because the pandemic exacerbated many risk factors for functional decline, such as social isolation and physical inactivity, we wanted to examine changes in functional status among this population.”
Data used in the study was derived from 6,045 who were part of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Investigators compared function between 2015 and 2018, and then compared that data to more collected between September and December of 2020.
Those who had diabetes were 53% more likely to develop at least one functional limitation during the pandemic compared to those without diabetes. Investigators took into account risk factors for functional limitations such as obesity, activity levels, smoking and chronic health conditions. Even so, older adults with diabetes had a 28% higher risk for having functional limitations.
Socioeconomic factors played a role. Older adults who had diabetes and income of $20,000 or less had a fivefold higher risk for developing at least one functional limitation compared to those with annual household incomes over $100,000. Those without diabetes who had the lower income had double the risk for a limitation compared to the higher earners.
“It is important for health professionals to encourage their older patients, particularly those with diabetes, to engage in behaviors that can help maintain their functional status, such as regular physical activity,” Susanna Abraham Cottagiri, co-author and doctoral candidate at the School of Medicine at Queens University, also said.
“Combining lifestyle approaches that integrate physical activity with nutrition interventions have been shown to improve physical function in older adults with diabetes” said co-author Margaret de Groh, scientific manager at the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The team hopes that the results can form programs to improve physical function among older adults.
“Poverty remains a major barrier to nutrition and food security,” Esme Fuller-Thomson, another author and a researcher at the University of Toronto’s FIFSW who is also director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging, also said. “It is important to think about broader strategies to decrease poverty and improve food access in Canada in order to promote better physical functioning among older adults.”
