234Midlife Gait Abnormalities in People with Type 2 Diabetes—Data from TILDA

Abstract

Background: Type 2 (T2) diabetes is associated with an accelerated brain ageing process. Control of gait is a complex process dependent on central nervous system input in nondemented adults. Identifying subtle functional changes in diabetic patients in midlife may precipitate earlier intervention and improve health outcomes from physical and cognitive perspective. Gait analysis may provide a quantitative method to achieve this. This paper explores walking speed performance from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Methods: Participants between 50 and 60 years who completed Timed-Up-And-Go (TUG) task were included (n = 1897, mean age: 64.17, SD: 2.82, female: 54%). Participants with suspected type-1 diabetes, MMSE score below 17 or serious memory impairment were excluded. Walking speed was considered as time taken to complete TUG (standardised and adjusted for height). Appropriate statistical tests and robust graphical methods were used to compare performance between healthy participants and participants with type-2 diabetes. Results: The type-2 diabetic group showed significantly increased weight and medication burden in comparison to healthy participants. Significant difference between groups is identified by Mann-Whitney test (p < 0.001). Quantile analysis of walking speed demonstrated a complete negative shift (slowing effect) in T2 diabetic patients. The most significant slowing effect is seen comparing the lowest quantile of each group. Conclusions: Type-2 diabetes status has a negative effect on walking speed as measured by TUG even in midlife. Further studies are required to characterise the performance of T2 diabetic patients on measures encompassing variability and rhythm, parameters which may be more sensitive to disorders of executive cognitive function.