must be individualized. First, because elderly adults with
diabetes mellitus vary widely in duration of disease, functional
status, comorbidities, and complications, the goals
of treatment should be individualized. Managing diabetes
mellitus in elderly adults can also be challenging because
of polypharmacy and the frequent presence of cognitive
deficits, physical disability, and geriatric syndromes.
Finally, data from controlled clinical trials in elderly adults
with diabetes mellitus are lacking. Although the Action in
Diabetes and Vascular Disease: Preterax and Diamicron
Modified Release Controlled Evaluation (ADVANCE)
trial, which compared the effect of intensive glycemic control
with a glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) target of less
than 6.5% with standard control (mean HbA1c 7.3%) in
11,140 participants aged 55 and older, clearly included
elderly adults (mean age 66), the proportion of elderly participants
is unclear.7 The study found that microvascular
or macrovascular complications were more frequent in the
standard control group (18.1%; N = 1,009) than in the
intensive control group (20.0%; N = 1,116; hazard
ratio = 0.90, 95% confidence interval = 0.82–0.98).
Although a prespecified subgroup analysis found that the
effect of intensive control on vascular events was consistent
across ages (