Fasting Glucose Variability and the Risk of Dementia in Individuals with Diabetes: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Background: We investigated whether fasting glucose (FG) variability could predict the risk of dementia.Methods: This cohort study analyzed data from Koreans with diabetes after at least three health examinations by the Korean Na-tional Health Insurance Corporation between 2005 and 2010, which included at least one examination between 2009 and 2010. A total of 769,554 individuals were included, excluding those aged <40 years and those with dementia. FG variability was measured using the variability independent of the mean (FG-VIM). The incidence of dementia was defined by the International Classifica-tion of Diseases 10th Revision codes and prescription of anti-dementia medication and was subdivided into Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD).Results: During the 6.9-year follow-up, 54,837, 41,032, and 6,892 cases of all-cause dementia, AD, and VD, respectively, were identified. Cox proportional regression analyses showed that as the FG-VIM quartile increased, the risk of dementia serially in-creased after adjustment for metabolic factors, income status, and diabetes-related characteristics, including the mean FG. Partici-pants in FG-VIM quartile 4 showed a 18%, 19%, and 17% higher risk for all-cause dementia, AD, and VD, respectively, than those in quartile 1; this particularly included non-obese patients with a longer duration of diabetes, high FG levels, dyslipidemia, and those taking glucose-lowering medications. Conversely, the baseline FG status and dementia showed a U-shaped association.Conclusion: Increased FG variability over 5 years can predict the risk of dementia in individuals with diabetes in Korea. This finding was more pronounced in patients with less favorable metabolic profiles.

Automated summary

FG variability is associated with the risk of dementia, increasing FG-VIM quartiles are positively correlated with increased dementia risk. This association is more pronounced in patients with less favorable metabolic profiles.