: Hip fracture, which is associated with substantial morbidity and long-term mortality, imposes a major burden on the healthcare system. Diabetes is a risk factor for osteoporosis, which is a crucial risk factor of hip fracture. However, epidemiological studies investigating the risk of hip fracture among patients with type 2 diabetes are limited. This study explored the association between hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and the risk of hip fracture in people with type 2 diabetes aged 65 years and older. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 20 025 older patients with type 2 diabetes who participated in the National Diabetes Case Management Program in Taiwan. The HbA1c level at the baseline and hip fracture incidence over an average of 7.41 years of follow-up were analyzed (maximum and standard deviation were 10.9 and 2.42 years, respectively). A total of 1514 hip fracture cases were recorded. The incidence rates of hip fracture were 9.15, 8.02, 9.58, 10.61, 12.51, and 13.43 per 1000 person-years in patients with baseline HbA1c levels of < 6%, 6–7%, 7%–8%, 8%–9%, 9%–10%, and ≥ 10%, respectively. After multivariate adjustment, the risk of hip fracture increased among patients with HbA1c levels of 9%–10% and ≥ 10.0% compared with patients with HbA1c levels of 6–7% (hazard ratio, 1.24; 95% confidence interval, 1.02–1.49 and 1.32; 1.09–1.58, respectively). Significant linear trends among various HbA1c levels were observed (P < 0.05). Patients with type 2 diabetes whose HbA1c levels exceeded 9.0% exhibited an increased risk of hip fracture, confirming a linear relationship. Our study's findings demonstrated the importance of glycemic control for fracture prevention in older adults with type 2 diabetes. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

This nationwide population-based study investigated the risk of Parkinson disease (PD) in relation to diabetes mellitus (DM) through the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan.A retrospective study was conducted, consisting of 36,294 patients who were newly diagnosed with DM between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2006 and 108,882 individuals without DM as healthy controls from insurance claims data from Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes Dataset. The subjects were followed up until December 31, 2011 or until the first manifestation of PD. The hazard ratio (HR) of DM for PD incidence was estimated by Cox proportional hazard regression model.Compared with the non-DM cohort, the incidence density rate of PD was 1.36-fold higher in the DM cohort (1.53 vs 2.08 per 1000 person-years) with an adjusted HR of 1.19 (95% confidence interval = 1.08-1.32) after adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, and medication use. The adjusted HR of PD for DM with a larger magnitude was observed in females (1.29, 1.12-1.49); individuals age 65 years and older (1.20, 1.06-1.35); those without schizophrenia (1.20, 1.08-1.33), bipolar disorder (1.20, 1.08-1.33), hypertension (1.18, 1.06-1.32), hyperlipidemia (1.21, 1.09-1.34), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (1.19, 1.06-1.32), coronary artery disease (1.22, 1.09-1.36), stroke (1.23, 1.10-1.37), asthma (1.20, 1.08-1.34), flunarizine use (1.21, 1.08-1.35), zolpidem use (1.16, 1.04-1.30), Charlson comorbidity index score of 0 (1.23, 1.08-1.40), and those using metoclopramide (1.35, 1.14-1.60) and zolpidem (1.46, 1.12-1.90).DM increased the risk of PD during a mean follow-up of 7.3 years. Further mechanistic research on the effect of DM on PD is needed.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is composed of cardiovascular risk factors including insulin resistance, obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Most of the components of MetS have been linked to the development of neoplasm. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between individual components of MetS and colorectal adenoma.Methods: The study subjects were recruited from a pool of 4872 individuals who underwent a health check-up examination during the period January 2006 to May 2008. Each participant fulfilled a structured questionnaire. MetS was defined based on the America Heart Association and National Heart Lung Blood Institute criteria. Subjects with history of colon cancer, colon polyps, colitis, or prior colonic surgery were excluded.Results: A total of 4122 subjects were included for final analysis (2367 men and 1755 women; mean age, 49.6 ± 11.7 years). Of them, MetS was diagnosed in 708 men (29.9%) and in 367 women (20.9%). Among the patients with MetS, 34.6% had adenoma, 31.7% had hyperplastic polyps and 23.3% were polyp-free (p < 0.0001, Chi-square test). The adjusted OR for colorectal adenoma was significantly higher in the subjects with MetS (OR, 1.31, CI: 1.09-1.57). A stronger association between MetS and colorectal adenoma was found in men (OR:1.44, CI:1.16-1.80) than in women (OR:1.04, CI:0.74-1.46). The adjusted OR for adenoma increased as the number of MetS components increased (p for trend = 0.0001 ). When the individual components of MetS were analyzed separately, only central obesity (OR:1.36, CI:1.14-1.63), low HDL cholesterol levels (OR:1.30, CI:1.10-1.54) and high triglyceride levels (OR:1.26, CI:1.04-1.53) were independently associated with colorectal adenoma.Conclusions: Of the components of MetS analyzed in this study, central obesity and dyslipidemia are independent risk factors for colorectal adenoma. With regard to the prevention of colorectal neoplasm, life-style modification such as weight reduction is worthwhile.

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has rapidly increased in the Taiwanese population with the increasing prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle and high-calorie dietary intake. This study aims to determine the annual trends of the prevalence and incidence of diagnosed type 2 diabetes among adults in Taiwan from 2000 to 2007.

Glycemic variation as an independent predictor of ischemic stroke in type 2 diabetic patients remains unclear. This study examined visit-to-visit variations in fasting plasma glucose (FPG), as represented by the coefficient of variation (CV), for predicting ischemic stroke independently, regardless of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and other conventional risk factors in such patients. Type 2 diabetic patients enrolled in the National Diabetes Care Management Program, ≥30 years old and free of ischemic stroke (n = 28,354) in 2002 to 2004 were included, and related factors were analyzed with extended Cox proportional hazards regression models of competing risk data on stroke incidence. After an average 7.5 years of follow-up, there were 2,250 incident cases of ischemic stroke, giving a crude incidence rate of 10.56/1,000 person-years (11.64 for men, 9.63 for women). After multivariate adjustment, hazard ratios for the second, third and fourth versus first FPG-CV quartile were 1.11 (0.98, 1.25), 1.22 (1.08, 1.38) and 1.27 (1.12, 1.43), respectively, without considering HbA1c, and 1.09 (0.96, 1.23), 1.16 (1.03, 1.31) and 1.17 (1.03, 1.32), respectively, after considering HbA1c. Besides HbA1c, FPG-CV was a potent predictor of ischemic stroke in type 2 diabetic patients, suggesting that different therapeutic strategies now in use be rated for their potential to (1) minimize glucose fluctuations and (2) reduce HbA1c level in type 2 diabetic patients to prevent ischemic stroke.

OBJECTIVE The relationship between glycemic variability and the incidence of Alzheimer disease (AD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is unclear. The aim of this study was to examine visit-to-visit variations in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) represented by the coefficient of variation (CV) and to determine whether they were independently associated with AD, irrespective of HbA_1c and other traditional risk factors in such patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients with T2DM enrolled in the National Diabetes Care Management Program, age ≥60 years, and without diagnosis of AD (n = 16,706) were included in the study. Potential risk factors were analyzed using extended Cox proportional hazards regression models for competing risk of mortality on AD incidence. RESULTS During a median follow-up of 8.88 years, 831 incidence cases of AD were identified, with a crude incidence rate of 3.5/1,000 person-years. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, lifestyle behaviors, diabetes-related variables, FPG and HbA_1c, drug-related variables, and comorbidities, both FPG CV and HbA_1c CV were found to be significant predictors of AD, with corresponding hazard ratios of 1.27 (95% CI 1.06–1.52) for the third tertile in FPG CV and 1.32 (95% CI 1.11–1.58) for the third tertile in HbA_1c CV. CONCLUSIONS FPG CV and HbA_1c CV are independently associated with AD. The associations between glycemic variability and AD demonstrated in this study suggest a linked pathophysiological mechanism, which is worthy of further investigation. Further research is required to confirm our results and to evaluate whether FPG CV and HbA_1c CV can be valuable therapeutic targets for patients with T2DM at risk.