BMJ 1998;316:89 (10 January)

Editorials

Managing diabetes in residential and nursing homes

Presents a complex set of problems with no one solution

The prevalence of diabetes in the elderly is around 10% and it imposes an enormous burden on healthcare systems. In America in 1992 nursing home care for people with diabetes cost $1.83 billion.1 Elderly diabetics have much microvascular and macrovascular disease and are two to three times more likely to need hospital admission than their non-diabetic counterparts.2 One might expect a higher prevalence of diabetes and its complications in residential or nursing homes. Several American studies have found diabetes in 20% of nursing home residents,3 and in one almost 90% of diabetic residents had coronary artery disease, strokes, or peripheral vascular disease—with 6.4 major diagnoses compared with only 2.4 in non-diabetic residents.4 In Alabama (and probably England) nursing home patients generate a disproportionately large number of out of hours calls.5

In a recent issue of the BMJ Benbow and coworkers surveyed 44 residential and nursing homes in Liverpool comparing 109 . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Improving management of diabetes in residential and nursing homes
Debbie Hicks, Steve Atkin, Ewan Masson, David Hepburn, Chris Walton, and Michael Hall
BMJ 1998 317: 148. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Benbow, S.J., Hoyte, R., Gill, G.V. (2001). Institutional dietary provision for diabetic patients. QJM 94: 27-30 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Hicks, D., Atkin, S., Masson, E., Hepburn, D., Walton, C., Hall, M. (1998). Improving management of diabetes in residential and nursing homes. BMJ 317: 148b-148 [Full text]  
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