Diabetes lowers functional recovery in adults with arthritis

In a preprint analyzing older adults aged 65 or older from the Health and Retirement Study, researchers evaluated how coexisting diabetes influences functional recovery and disability in people with arthritis. The team used biennial data collected between 2000 and 2022 to estimate standardized two-year probabilities across consecutive interview pairs. Having both conditions was associated with a higher probability of incident disability compared with arthritis alone, at 17.1% versus 15.8%. Recovery to complete independence was less likely with comorbidity, occurring in 19.9% of observations versus 23.3% for arthritis only. Among participants who began an observation interval with activities of daily living disability, any functional improvement was also lower, at 23.0% versus 27.7%. The authors noted higher mortality in the comorbid group as well.