The objective of this work was to study the prevalence of anxiety and depression in a population of elderly diabetics and their impact on the glycemic control and the disease evolution.

It was a prospective, descriptive and analytical study on 62 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes. A structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data to describe the participants and aspects of their diabetes. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

The patients’ mean age was 66.82 years with a standard deviation of 4.8. The diabetes study population was predominantly female (74.2%). Average duration of diabetes was 12 years with a standard deviation of 8.11. Prevalence of anxiety and depression in diabetic elderly patients was respectively 40.3% and 22.6% with a female dominance. 67.7% of elderly diabetes had poor glycemic control. Comparing anxiety mean scores, patients with worse glycemic control had significantly higher scores (9 06 ± 3. 14 vs 6.55; p = 0. 017). We didn’t found a relationship between depression and glycemic control. In our population, the presence of complications were significantly associated with anxiety and depression.

Several studies have shown that the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in elderly patients with diabetes is considerably higher than in general population samples. Depression represent a risk factor for morbidity specially in elderly subjects, which justify a detection of psychiatric symptoms in order to improve the quality of life and the evolution of the disease.