A community survey of diabetes in the elderly.

All 98 elderly patients who were known to have diabetes on the lists of two inner-city general practices were interviewed and examined in their own homes. They were characterized in terms of their prevalence of vascular complications, metabolic control, perceived health (measured by the Nottingham Health Profile), frequency of hospital and general practice contacts and use of domiciliary 'support services' and compared to 98 control subjects with an identical age/gender distribution. Mean haemoglobin A1 in the diabetic patients was 9.