Differences in weight gain in hypertensive and diabetic elderly patients primary care study.

BACKGROUND: Treatment and care of elderly patients with diabetes and hypertension means a hard task in primary care. Patients with these two components of metabolic syndrome are often overweight or obese. Although some parameters of metabolic syndrome are usually measured in a medical setting, checking body weight is usually done by the patients. AIM: The aim of this study is to analyse the patients' self-recorded data on weight and compare them according to hypertension and diabetes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Five hundred and forty people (225 men and 315 women) between 60 and 75 years of age were eventually selected in primary care settings. Retrospective self-recorded data on recent weights and every decade since the age of 20, as well as the decade prior to diagnosis were collected. The data of patients with and without diabetes and/or hypertension were compared.
RESULTS: The current mean body weight was significantly higher in all groups than at the age of 20. Compared with the control group, hypertensive men and women were approximately of the same weight in their twenties and, also, recently, but they gained more weight in the 4th and 5th decades of their life. Diabetics started at higher weights. The greatest weight gain was observed as follows: between 20-30 years and 30-40 years in men and women, respectively, as well as between 50-60 years of age and in the last decade prior to diagnosis in both genders. Weight gain in the control group was steady at a lower rate.
CONCLUSIONS: Weight gain between 20-40 years of age could be an important factor in the aetiology of diabetes. Stable or at least limited weight gain may be a preventive factor. Considering the limitations of the study, further and decades long epidemiological evaluations are suggested in a larger study population.