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Table 1 Patient and caregiver characteristics according to diabetes status of the patient with AD dementia

From: Effect of diabetes on caregiver burden in an observational study of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease

Characteristica

Overall N = 1495

Patients with diabetes N = 188

Patients without diabetes N = 1307

P-value

Patients

Age, yearsb

77.6 (7.65)

78.0 (6.97)

77.5 (7.74)

0.137

Sex, n (%) female

819 (54.8)

94 (50.0)

725 (55.5)

0.171

BMI, kg/m2

25.3 (4.07)

26.3 (4.20)

25.2 (4.02)

<0.001

Marital status, n (%)

   

0.019

 Married/cohabiting

1076 (72.0)

122 (64.9)

954 (73.0)

 

 Widowed

361 (24.2)

60 (31.9)

301 (23.0)

 

 Divorced/separated

36 (2.4)

2 (1.1)

34 (2.6)

 

 Never married

21 (1.4)

4 (2.1)

17 (1.3)

 

Living location, n (%)

   

0.892

 Urban

1131 (75.7)

143 (76.1)

988 (95.7)

 

 Rural

363 (24.3)

45 (23.9)

318 (24.3)

 

Living in own home, n (%)

1428 (95.7)

179 (95.7)

1249 (95.7)

0.220

Living alone in own home, n (%)

253 (17.7)

33 (18.4)

220 (17.6)

0.017

Alcohol consumption, n (%)

885 (61.4)

91 (51.1)

794 (62.9)

0.043

Years of education

10.4 (3.15)

9.5 (2.84)

10.6 (3.17)

<0.001

Time since AD diagnosis, years

2.2 (2.23)

2.1 (2.00)

2.3 (2.26)

0.268

Patients with comorbiditiesc, n (%)

1101 (73.6)

188 (100)

913 (69.9)

0.144

Diabetes drug use, n (%)

 

165 (87.8)

  

Experienced a fall in last 3 months, n (%)

196 (13.1)

26 (13.8)

170 (13.0)

0.465

MMSE total score (range 0–30)

17.4 (6.34)

17.4 (6.14)

17.4 (6.37)

0.909

Neuropsychological assessment in last 6 months, n (%)

841 (56.4)

108 (57.4)

733 (56.2)

0.499

AD drug use, n (%)

   

0.750

No AD medications

212 (14.2)

29 (15.4)

183 (14.0)

 

One AD medication

1121 (75.0)

141 (75.0)

980 (75.0)

 

Two or more AD medications

162 (10.8)

18 (9.6)

144 (11.0)

 

Psychiatric/hypnotic drug use, n (%)

393 (26.3)

44 (23.4)

349 (26.7)

0.656

Caregivers

Age, yearsb

67.3 (12.04)

65.0 (12.69)

67.7 (11.91)

0.012

Sex, n (%) female

958 (64.2)

139 (73.9)

819 (62.8)

0.005

Marital status, n (%)

   

0.403

 Married/cohabiting

1316 (88.1)

163 (86.7)

1153 (88.4)

 

 Widowed

38 (2.5)

3 (1.6)

35 (2.7)

 

 Divorced/separated

70 (4.7)

9 (4.8)

61 (4.7)

 

 Never married

69 (4.6)

13 (6.9)

56 (4.3)

 

Relationship to the patient, n (%)

   

0.001

 Wife

503 (33.7)

70 (37.2)

433 (33.2)

 

 Husband

481 (32.2)

39 (20.7)

442 (33.9)

 

 Child

405 (27.1)

69 (36.7)

336 (25.7)

 

 Friend

20 (1.3)

2 (1.1)

18 (1.4)

 

 Other

84 (5.6)

8 (4.3)

76 (5.8)

 

Caregiver lives with the patient, n (%)

1135 (76.0)

141 (75.0)

994 (76.2)

0.781

Caregivers with medical conditionsc, n (%)

875 (58.6)

105 (55.9)

770 (59.0)

0.181

  1. AD Alzheimer’s disease, BMI body mass index, MMSE Mini-Mental State Examination
  2. aData are presented as mean (SD) unless indicated otherwise. Percentages reported are for patients/caregivers with data available for each specific variable. Missing data for patients (overall): no missing data for age, sex, comorbidities, diabetes drug use, MMSE total score, AD drug use, psychiatric/hypnotic drug use; amount of missing data for other variables were BMI (n = 220), marital status (n = 1), living location (n = 1), living in own home (n = 3), living alone in own home (n = 67), alcohol consumption (n = 54), years of education (n = 6), time since AD diagnosis (n = 1), experienced a fall (n = 2), neuropsychological assessment (n = 3). Missing data for caregivers (overall) was n = 2 for all variables except medical conditions (n = 1; caregiver diabetes status not collected)
  3. bThe Case Report Form collected only birth year data, thus the missing month and day were imputed with 15 July. Age is the year part of the difference between the date of Informed Consent and the imputed birth date
  4. cData include the presence of diabetes
  5. P-values are for the comparison between patient diabetes groups (ANOVA for continuous variables, with country and diabetes status as factors, and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test for categorical variables, with stratification by country)
  6. P-values indicating statistically significant differences between patient diabetes groups (p < 0.05) are highlighted in bold type
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BMC Geriatrics

ISSN: 1471-2318

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