Correlation between long-term glycemic variability and cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a retrospective study

Objective To investigate the correlation between long-term glycemic variability and cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods This retrospective analysis includes 222 patients hospitalized at Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from June 2021 to June 2023. Cognitive function was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). All patients were categorized into the MCI group and the non-MCI group based on their MoCA score. Long-term blood glucose fluctuations were measured using glycated hemoglobin A1c standard deviation (HbA1c-SD) and fasting plasma glucose standard deviation (FPG-SD). The study compared general clinical data, blood biochemical indicators, and glycemic variability indicators between the two groups. The differences between the groups were compared using t-test, Chi-Square Test, or Mann–Whitney U test. Kendall’s correlation analysis, multivariate logistic regression analysis and ROC curve correlation analysis were further used to analyze the correlation and diagnostic power. Results The differences in age, MoCA scores, MMSE scores, HOMA-β, HbA1c-M, HbA1c-SD, FPG-M, FPG-SD, eGFR, Smoking, GLP-1RA and SGLT-2i usage were statistically significant between the two groups (P