Relevance of the body mass index in the cognitive status of diabetic patients with different alcohol-drinking patterns

Abstract

Nowadays the general relevance of alcohol consumption in diabetes is extremely controversial. There are recent reports that alcohol consumption could result in a decreased incidence of diabetes, as well as other studies demonstrating a positive association between alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes; there are also reports arguing for an inverse association between the two or for no correlation at all. The different results obtained in these studies could be explained by the existence of several confounders that could influence the outcome of the aforementioned studies. In this paper, we studied the possible relevance of BMI as a confounder in the relationship between alcohol consumption in diabetes and cognitive function, by analyzing the correlations between BMI values in diabetic patients with different alcohol drinking patterns and the subdomains from some main psychometric tests, such as MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) and MOCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment). Our results provide evidence for BMI as a possible confounder of the relationship between alcohol consumption in diabetes and cognitive function. We found a significant increase (p<0.0001) in BMI values in patients with diabetes compared to our control group. Most importantly, significant correlations between BMI parameters in alcohol-consuming diabetic patients and most of the subdomains for psychometric testing.

Keywords

• diabetes
• alcohol
• cognitive
• body mass index