Diabetes mellitus and other cardiovascular risk factors in an elderly population.

The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of diabetes in a community-dwelling elderly population, and to assess whether other cardiovascular disease risk factors were more frequent in older diabetics than in non-diabetics. Results suggest that, with the exception of hypertension, other cardiovascular disease risk factors are not more prevalent in older diabetics and do not aggregate in older diabetics. However, there was a very high prevalence of hypertension among older diabetics. Of particular concern is the observation that 40% of diabetic individuals under treatment for hypertension still have unacceptably high blood-pressure levels. These results indicate a need for follow-up of high-blood-pressure treatment in older diabetic people.