Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment in Recently Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Patients: Are Chronic Inflammatory Diseases Responsible for Cognitive Decline?

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of cognitive impairment (CI) among patients recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (RDD) and to identify any relationships between CI and RDD comorbidities.

Methods: One thousand seven hundred twelve patients with RDD participated in a cross-sectional study. The patients' sociodemographic and clinical data were registered.

Results: The sample population had an average age of 51 ± 11 years, and 63.26% of the patients were female. CI was diagnosed in 38 patients (2.2%) and was more common among both females (2.8% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.063) and the elderly (0% at an age ≤ 30 years vs. 10.4% at an age > 70 years, p = 0.0001). Rheumatoid arthritis (present in 15.8% vs. absent in 2.1%) and asthma (13% vs. 2.1%) correlated significantly with CI based on the results of our logistic regression analysis.

Conclusion: Age, female gender, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma are risk factors for CI in the setting of RDD.