Abstract: Objective To investigate the comorbidities in the elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods A retrospective study was conducted to collect clinical data of 427 hospitalized elderly patients with T2DM. The Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) was calculated. CCI≤2 was defined as low comorbidity group, and CCI > 2 was defined as high comorbidity group. The general condition, comorbidites, blood glucose control and multiple drug use were analyzed in different comorbidity group. Results Among 427 elderly patients with T2DM, the high comorbidities prevalence was 65.34%. The age and course of diabetes of the high comorbidity group were significantly higher than those of the low comorbidity group (P<0.05).In the high comorbidity group, 88.53% were complicated with hypertension, 81.00% with hyperlipidemia, 63.44% with peripheral artery disease, 60.93% with cerebrovascular disease, and 40.50% with ischemic heart disease. In the low comorbidity group, 77.70% were complicated with hyperlipidemia, 62.84% with peripheral artery disease, and 53.38% with hypertension. The proportion of polypharmacy in high comorbidity group (62.37%) was significantly higher than that of low comorbidity group (47.30%) (P<0.01). There were no significant differences in blood glucose control and islet function between low comorbidity group and high comorbidity group (P>0.05). Conclusions Compared with the low comorbidity group, the patients in the high comorbidity group show older age, longer course of disease, higher proportion of taking multiple drugs, and are more likely to be complicated with diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Key words: type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged, comorbidity, polypharmacy