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The following is a summary of “Is living alone associated with mortality among older primary care patients with or without diabetes?,” published in the November 2024 issue of Primary Care by Aro et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the association between living alone and mortality among older patients with and without diabetes.  

They used electronic patient records to identify 429 patients with diabetes and 650 age- and sex-matched controls without diabetes, all aged 65 or older, in 2015. Mortality data from 2015 to 2019 were obtained from Statistics Finland’s national registry. They estimated cumulative mortality using Kaplan–Meier’s method and compared groups with the log-rank test. Cox proportional hazard regression was applied to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CIs. 

The results showed that the median follow-up time was 4.3 years. Among controls, 8.1% (95% CI 5.9–11.1) of those not living alone and 20.2% (95% CI 15.3–26.3) of those living alone died. Among patients with diabetes, 15.1% (95% CI 11.3–19.8) of those not living alone and 28.8% (95% CI 22.4–36.7) of those living alone died. Living alone was associated with increased mortality (HR = 1.84; 95% CI 1.30–2.61), while diabetes was not (HR = 1.31; 95% CI 0.94–1.81). 

Investigators concluded that living alone significantly impacted mortality among older patients, regardless of diabetes status. Diabetes was not clearly linked to increased mortality in these patients. 

Source: bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-024-02651-7