Type 1 diabetes mellitus: Aspects of long-term complications and body composition

Abstract: Studies concerning social consequences, gastrointestinal and urinary tract symptoms were conducted in a population-based cohort comprising patients with long-standing type 1 diabetes and matched control persons. Three different questionnaires were sent by mail to diabetic patients and control persons. After a mean duration of 28.7±2.6 years, compared to the controls the diabetic patients showed an almost 10 times higher mortality, a lower employment rate and greater need for welfare benefits. These differences were mainly due to diabetic late complications. Education, housing conditions, life-style, civil state, alcohol and smoking habits were similar in the two groups. The prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms was significantly higher in the diabetic patients than in the controls, and this was found to be attributable to the female diabetic patients. Female diabetic patients had been treated with antibiotics for urinary tract infections more often than controls, they experienced more social problems than controls in daily life because of urinary tract problems and used clamps to prevent wetting more often than did controls. Body composition and bone mineral density were evaluated in parts of the cohort with long-standing type 1 diabetes and control persons in another population-based cohort comprising diabetic females aged 16-19 years with type 1 diabetes since childhood and matched controls. Besides a tendency to reduced abdominal fat mass in diabetic males, no difference was observed in fat mass, muscle mass or bone mineral density between the patients with long-standing type 1 diabetes and controls. Significant correlations were found between insulin dosage and whole body fat mass in diabetic females and between serum cholesterol levels and abdominal fat mass in diabetic males. The female adolescents had a higher body mass index than the controls, and their overweight was shown to consist almost entirely of an increased fat mass. The distribution of fat, expressed as abdominal-to-leg ratio, correlated significantly to HbA1c and daily dosage of insulin. Bone mineral density did not differ between the groups. IGF I was significantly lower both in patients with long-standing type 1 diabetes and in the adolescent diabetic females compared with their matched controls.