[Diabetes and Frailty in the Elderly. A Prospective Study of an Outpatient Population Supported by General Practitioners].

INTRODUCTION:Elderly people with diabetes represent a large and growing part of the general practitioners patient database, but their state of frailty compared to the non-diabetic population is poorly understood.OBJECTIVE:To study the relationship between diabetes and frailty in people aged 65 and over in primary care.METHOD:Frailty syndrome was assessed by the Fried Scale and compared between populations of diabetic and non-diabetic patients; 268 patients were studied, including 129 diabetic patients.RESULTS:Frailty was found in 27.9 % of older diabetic patients. The observed mean Fried score was 1.76 in people with diabetes versus 1.39 in non-diabetics, with more frail diabetic subjects (p = 0.007). In this study, HbA1c levels showed no significant association to frailty.CONCLUSION:Larger studies in several general practice clinics should be performed on subjects over 65 years of age with or without diabetes.