People who are diagnosed with diabetes when they are young are more likely to get dementia. However, a new study published in Diabetologia found no link between prediabetes and dementia risk. The study included participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study aged 46-70 years who didn't have diabetes at the baseline. The researchers defined prediabetes as having an HbA1c levels between 5.7-6.4% and incident diabetes was defined as a self-reported physician diagnosis or use of diabetes medication. The investigators evaluated two possibilities; the association between prediabetes and the risk of dementia and the risk of developing dementia and age of diagnosis of diabetes. Out of the 11,656 participants without diabetes at the beginning of the study, 20% had prediabetes. Before considering incident diabetes (when diabetes was diagnosed later), prediabetes was linked to a higher risk of dementia. However, after accounting for incident diabetes, the link became weaker and not statistically significant. The most interesting observation from the study was that diabetes onset at earlier age is strongly correlated with risk of developing dementia. The researchers noticed the association as people who got diabetes before the age of 60 years had the highest risk, followed by those who got it between 60-69 years, and finally those who got it between 70-79 years.

      The researchers concluded that if we prevent or delay prediabetes from turning into diabetes, we can lower the possible risk of developing dementia.

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