Relative risk of developing to diabetes among prediabetic patients compare to people with normoglycaemia: Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world especially in older adults. Older adults with diabetes are likely to have higher mortality and reduced functional status. The precursor stage of diabetes is called prediabetes. This study is to assess the overall relative risk of diabetes in individuals with prediabetes compare to people with normoglycemia. The results will provide epidemiological evidence to the process of developing diabetes to inform appropriate treatment for reducing the incidence of diabetes among elders. Methods: Studies were identified from PubMed, EBSCOhost, ProQuest Medical Library, Web of Science databases. Random effect model was used to pool the relative risk. The heterogeneity between studies was assessed by the p-value from Cochran's Q statistic and I2. Funnel plot and Egger’s test was used to examine publication bias. All statistical analysis was performed by R. Results: 39 studies published from 1999 to 2016 were included in this meta-analysis which included 195,000 individuals with a broad range of ethnicities and nationalities. The overall estimated relative risk for diabetes among all kinds of prediabetes as compared to normoglycemic people was 6.46 (95% CI: 5.29, 7.89), with high heterogeneity between studies. Conclusion: Prediabetes is a high risk state for diabetes development and is gradually becoming more and more common among elders. Older adults with any category of prediabetes should pay attention to their health condition to prevent them from being true diabetic patients.