Women Living Solo Have Greater Diabetes Risk

The lifestyle habits of older womenliving alone may cause them to have anincreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes,according to the results of aSwedish study. For the research, 461Swedish women between the ages of50 and 64 were followed for >2 years.The women had prediabetes when thestudy began. They were given adviceon diet, exercise, and smoking toreduce their risk of developing diabetes.

The results showed that women wholived alone were 3 times more likely todevelop type 2 diabetes, compared withwomen who lived with family. At the endof the study, 12% had developed thedisease, with women living alone beingat the highest risk, regardless of biologicalfactors such a family history of diabetes,blood pressure, and cholesterollevels. The researchers attributed theincreased risk to smoking. Women wholived alone were more apt to smoke andmore likely to continue smoking duringthe study period. Diet and drinkinghabits also appeared to play a role.(The findings were reported in DiabetesCare, October 2005.)