About this Research Topic
Diabetes is a leading cause of disability and death associated with related complications in older people. The global population is ageing and diabetes is associated with increasing age.
The scope of this collection will include the need to consider older age and diabetes from a biological and functional perspective rather than chronological age. Factors that affect health and longevity and key life transitions such as stopping work, stopping driving and admission to a care home and their impact on physical and mental health will be included. Changing health and functional status often means safety can be compromised by factors such as hypoglycemia and require metabolic targets and other goals to be reassessed and personalized through shared decision making, geriatric assessments, pharmacovigilance and identifying changes and challenges early to reduce risks.
The goal of this Research Topic is to produce a body of evidence based work about caring for older people with diabetes through life and health transitions that is practically relevant and can be used by clinicians.
Sub-topics for potential manuscripts may include:
_ Principles of care of older people with diabetes including general health care as well as diabetes-specific care and priority setting;
_ Comprehensive geriatric assessment: processes and useful assessment tools and strategies;
_ Common comorbidities including frailty, depression, and dementia and their relationship to disease trajectories and functional status and effects on life expectancy;
_ Managing metabolic emergencies such as DKA, hypoglycemia, HHS and intercurrent infections and care in special situations such as dementia, delirium, surgery;
_ Identifying and managing diabetes, and non-diabetes related pain;
_ Medicine management issues such as pharmacovigilance, medicine reviews, stopping medicines, thoughtful polypharmacy and quality use of medicines;
_ Transition to palliative care combined with usual diabetes care and planning for end of life and withdrawing treatment;
_ Family caregivers;
_ Clinician communication skills: understanding how older people learn and process information, the effects of sensory changes, developing/ assessing information that meets readability and other criteria;
_ Sarcopenia and its management;
_ Falls and fractures in the older person with diabetes;
_ The failing heart in older people;
_ Issues and controversies on dietary interventions/weight loss in older people; and
_ Culture, religion, spiritual and dignity and their relationship to respect for personhood and their influence on issues such as diabetes self-care, fasting, death and dying. Other factors outside the ‘diabetes square’ such as abuse, pets, volunteering are key aspects of personhood.
We are interested in original research and review articles. The information should be for all disciplines and specialties and should include practical recommendations about how the information can be used in practice.
Keywords: Older people, Diabetes, Life transitions, Personalized care, End of life care
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
