[ association between duration of diabetes and balance impairment in people with diabetic neuropathy]

Introduction: Decrement in balance control ability in individuals with diabetic neuropathy may affect their daily living activities and lead to hazardous consequences such as falls and foot ulcer. Thus, it is important to predict balance impairment in this population as early as possible. The aim of this study was to determine the association between the duration of diabetes and balance impairment in people with diabetic neuropathy

Materials and Methods: Thirty diabetic patients, diagnosed with neuropathy participated in this study. We used a personal information questionnaire, Mini Mental State Examination questionnaire and the Berg Balance Scale [BBS] to evaluate basic medical status, cognitive function and functional balance, respectively. Univariate regression tests were used for statistical analysis

Results: Our findings showed a significant association between the duration of diabetes and balance control [p<0.01 and standardized beta=-0.509]. When adjusting for height, weight, body mass index and cognitive score, the association between the duration of diabetes and BBS score enhanced significantly [p<0.01 and standardized beta= -0.565, -0.527, -0.550 and -0.548, respectively]. Moreover, duration of diabetes could explained 25 to 45 percent of balance control impairments in people with diabetic neuropathy

Conclusion: Diabetes duration is a significant predictor of balance impairment in people with diabetic neuropathy. It could be used as a very simple factor to predict possible future balance impairments in these patients

Functional balance in diabetic neuropathy

Proprioceptive loss in diabetic peripheral neuropathy patients [DPN] has been known to cause postural imbalance, which may affect the quality of functions and activities of daily living of these patients. The aim of this study was to compare functional balance in diabetic neuropathic patients and normal subjects. Fifteen DPN patients whom neuropathy was diagnosed by Diabetic Neuropathy Examination [DNE] and 15 healthy gender-, age- and BMI-matched, subjects were evaluated using the Berg Balance Scale [BBS]. In addition to the overall functional balance, five groups of BBS tests based on the probable effects of proprioceptive loss on various functions were taken into more consideration. These test groups were: The ability to control weight shifting [CWS], ability to transfer [T], and ability to control balance under different base of support [BOS] and visual [V] conditions. Comparison of the two groups showed significant decreases in BBS, CWS, T, BOS, and V scores the DPN patients, compared to healthy controls [P < 0.05]. There were significant negative [sig. level: 0.001] good to strong correlations between DNE score and BBS, CWS, T, BOS, and V, Scores [Pearson's correlation coefficient: -0.88, -0.91, -0.87, -0.76, and -0.70, respectively] in patients. To control their balance, DPN patients rely on visual information, and the current findings demonstrate that DPN results in a functional imbalance, exposing these patients to the danger of falling during of their daily living activities, the condition becoming more acute as severity of neuropathy aggravates