Unhealthy lifestyles blamed for most new diabetes in older adults

Unhealthy lifestyles could be responsible for nine out of ten new cases of diabetes mellitus among older US adults, say researchers. A cohort study tracked 4883 men and women aged 65 or over for ten years suggested that if all older people:

exercised more
stopped smoking (or never started)
ate a healthy diet
drank moderately
and had a body mass index of less than 25...

the incidence of drug dependent diabetes in this age group would fall by 89%. There was a clear dose-response effect, and the risk of diabetes fell in a stepwise fashion with each extra healthy lifestyle factor.

Arch Intern Med 2009;169:798-807