ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses diagnosis and screening of diabetes and highlights the issues that are unique to elderly patients. The term “diabetes mellitus” refers to many disease processes involving carbohydrate metabolism characterized by hyperglycemia and resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin utilization, or both. In 1997 the American Diabetes Association expert committee recommended use of the terms type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes rather than the use of insulin dependent diabetes and non-insulin dependent diabetes. Type 1 diabetes in older adults tends to present in a more sub-acute or chronic manner mimicking type 2 diabetes with fewer symptoms to none at all. When older adults are diagnosed with diabetes, it is important to screen for other risk factors for cardiovascular disease and to establish management goals. Further research is needed to identify criteria for diagnosis that will detect elderly patients at risk of diabetes-related morbidity and mortality.
