Diabetes Quiz and Statistics – Part 2: This is the second part of a quiz developed by PLoS Medical and Gavin Yamey and Virginia Barbour. The intent is to provide statistics in the form of a quiz that can enable diabetics and the ones they love to have a better understanding of the struggle they face on a daily basis.

Question 6. Which of the following best reflects the association between blood glucose level and mortality in people with type 2 diabetes?
_ There is a positive, although weak, association between increased glucose and increased mortality
_ There is a positive, and very strong, association between increased glucose and increased mortality
_ There is no association between glucose level and mortality

Question 7. For people with healed diabetic foot ulcers, what is the 5-year cumulative rate of ulcer recurrence?
_ 15%
_ 30%
_ 45%
_ 66%

Question 8. Which of the following interventions for preventing foot complications in people with diabetes is best supported by evidence?
_ Therapeutic footwear for preventing ulcer recurrence
_ Screening and referral to foot care clinics to prevent major amputations in those at high risk
_ Education programs for preventing ulcer recurrence, serious foot lesions, and major amputations

Question 9. What proportion of patients with type 1 diabetes have thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies?
_ About one in five
_ About one in ten
_ About one in 100

Question 10. Which of the following best reflects the evidence from randomized controlled trials on the optimum HbA1C for people with diabetes?
_ These trials found that development or progression of complications increases progressively as HbA1c increases above the nondiabetic range, and that there is a glycemic threshold above which there is a risk of complications
_ These trials found that development or progression of complications increases progressively as HbA1c increases above the nondiabetic range, but there is no lower glycemic threshold for the risk of complications

Let’s take a look at the answers.

Answer 6. There is a positive, although weak, association between increased glucose and increased mortality A systematic review of 27 studies examining the relationship between blood glucose level and mortality in type 2 diabetes found a positive but weak association between high glucose and increased mortality.

Answer 7. 66%
Although the incidence of new ulcers is relatively low—around 2% per year—the risk of recurrence for people with healed diabetic foot ulcers is very high: the 5-year cumulative rate of ulcer recurrence is 66%, and the rate of amputation is 12%.

Answer 8. Screening and referral to foot care clinics to prevent major amputations in those at high risk One randomized, controlled trial, involving 2002 patients
attending a general diabetes clinic, found that a diabetes screening program (involving referral to a foot clinic if high-risk features were present) reduced the risk of major amputation compared with usual care after two years.

Answer 9. About one in five
The Belgian Diabetes Registry indicated that the prevalence of thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies is 22% in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Answer 10. These trials found that development or progression of complications increases progressively as HbA1c increases above the nondiabetic range, but there is no lower glycemic threshold for the risk of complications.

Two large randomized, controlled trials in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes found that development or progression of complications increases progressively as HbA1c increases above the nondiabetic range. The data suggested the better the glycemic control, the lower the risk of complications.

We hope this information has been beneficial in questions that may not routinely come up in conversation about Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.