NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Elderly people with type 2 diabetes have an accelerated loss of skeletal muscle strength compared with their counterparts without diabetes, Korean and US researchers report in the current issue of Diabetes Care.Lead investigator Dr. Seok Won Park told Reuters Health that elderly adults with diabetes lose leg muscle strength about 50 percent faster than their peers without diabetes, which may explain the two-fold higher risk of physical disability in diabetics.

To investigate the changes in muscle mass and strength in community-dwelling older adults with or without type 2 diabetes, Park of Bundang CHA University, Sungnam, and colleagues studied data for 1,840 subjects between 70 and 79 years old. Of this group, 305 had type 2 diabetes.