WITHDRAWN Gender-Specific Prevalence and Health Adjusted Life Expectancy of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Among the Elderly in Resource-Limited Regions

OBJECTIVES: Life-long medication and serious complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) imposed huge burden on the elderly. This study aimed at providing new information on gender-specific prevalence of T2DM among the elderly and evaluate the health adjusted life expectancy (HALE) loss due to T2DM in resource-limited regions.

METHODS: A total of 17000 participants aged 60 to 79 were derived from the Henan Rural Cohort. Data from EuroqOL-5D (EQ-5D) and the 2017 China Cause-of-death Surveillance Data set were used to compile life table and calculate life expectancy (LE), and then the HALE was estimated by the Sullivan method.

RESULTS: The overall prevalence of T2DM was 12.71%, and was higher among women than men (14.59% vs. 10.28%, P < 0.05). The HALE was significantly higher among individuals free from T2DM than counterparts with T2DM pertaining men aged 60 to 74 (all P < 0.05), whereas, no differences were found among men aged over 75 (P > 0.05) and women within all age groups (all P > 0.05). Whether participants with T2DM or not, the reported HALE was much higher among women than men across all age groups (all P < 0.001). In addition, the LE, HALE and the ratio of HALE to LE decreased sharply with age in both men and women.

CONCLUSIONS: Although rural elderly women appeared to have higher prevalence of T2DM than men, they had less HALE loss due to T2DM. More attention should be paid to reduce the prevalence of T2DM among rural elder men to boost the HALE in the whole elderly population in rural areas.