Mortality in an elderly type 2 diabetic patients' cohort who attended a self-management educational workshop

To compare the all-cause mortality rate in elderly type 2 diabetic patients who attended self-management educational workshops compared with those who did not.

Retrospective cohort study in a Health Maintenance Organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Patients older than 64 years with type 2 diabetes before December 2003 conformed the cohort followed from January 01, 2001 until death, censored date or December 31, 2007. All-cause mortality rate was ascertained from vital status reports and assessed according to educational workshops attendance. Results were adjusted for baseline variables, co-morbidities and A1C levels using Cox proportional hazards model.

1730 elderly diabetic patients were included, yielding 8685 person/years of observation. Educated and non-educated groups were similar regarding sex, co morbidities, diabetes duration, prevalent cases, insulin treatment, tobacco use, clinical and laboratory measures. All-cause mortality rate was 5.53 (4.04-5.07) per 100 person/years for non-attendants and 3.06 (2.39-3.91) for attendants. Crude hazard ratio for exposure to workshops was 0.68 (0.52-0.88); p = 0.004. After adjustment, attendance to diabetic workshops decreased its effect from 33% to 18% (HR 0.82; 95%CI: 0.61-1.08).

Workshop attendants had 33% lower all-cause crude mortality rate at 6 years of follow-up. More research is needed to explore whether these findings are explained by education itself, behavioural or personal characteristics of workshop attendants, the intensified participation in an integral diabetes programme, or a combination of them.