In a study of 50,000 patients reducing the A1c reducing HbA1c from 9.9% (fourth) to 7.7% (third) was associated with 3.4 years of gain in life expectantly. However, a further reduction to 6.8% (second) was associated with only a mean of 0.5 years gain in life expectantly and from 6.8% to 5.9% (first) was not associated with life expectantly benefit. Overall, however, reducing HbA1c from 9.o% to the 5.9% is associated with a life expectantly gain of 3.8 years
Why Is This Important: This study suggests that patients over 65 with Hb A1c less than 6.8 are less likely to develop diabetes if other risk factors like obesity are not present. It’s okay to tell older adults with prediabetes to exercise more and eat carbohydrates evenly throughout the day,” said Medha Munshi, director of the geriatric diabetes program at the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. “But it’s important to educate patients that this is not a disease that is inevitably going to make you diabetic and stress you out.”