Type 2 Diabetes, Falls, and Disabling Hip Fracture Risk and Outcomes Social Determinants: A Complex Web of Many Possibly Modifiable Poorly Addressed Remedial Factors?
Ray Marks
ABSTRACT
Type 2 diabetes, a predominantly adult form of this widespread commonly chronically progressive disabling health condition, is one that appears increasingly present among many older adults, who are also at high risk for falls and osteoporotic as well as non-osteoporotic fractures, such as that at the hip joint that is especially devastating. This brief summarizes some possible pertinent findings regarding a possible role for social factors, such as externally derived environmental attributes in this regard, including the role of socioeconomic inequities. We conclude that in addition to possible resource deprivation, an associated increasingly sedentary oriented lifestyle, disparate or suboptimal health access, fast food advertising and availability among other factors warrant attention and hold promise for possibly reducing type 2 diabetes risk and severity, as well as subsequent costly falls and hip fracture risks. Public health messaging and opportunities to counter the sedentary, passive lifestyles of many, plus more efforts to reduce food marketing messages and sugary drinks to youth and adults should prove helpful in multiple tangible respects.
