Frequency of Social Isolation and Homeboundness and Their Relationships with High-Level Functional Capacity in Elderly Diabetic Patients

PURPOSE: To determine the frequency of social isolation (hereinafter, isolation) and homeboundness in elderly diabetic patients and to investigate their relationships with high-level functional capacity. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Subjects were diabetic outpatients aged 65 years and older who were visiting the Japanese Red Cross Ise Hospital. Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence (TMIG-IC) was used to evaluate high-level functional capacity. Isolation was defined as having less than one interaction per week with someone other than co-habiting family members. Homeboundness was defined as leaving the house less than once a day. Multiple regression analysis was performed with the TMIG-IC score as the dependent variable and isolation and homeboundness as independent variables. RESULTS: Four hundred fifty-one patients were included in the analysis. The frequency of isolation and homeboundness affected 37% and 13.3% of men and 28.9% and 20.6% of women, respectively. The adjusted partial regression coefficient of the TMIG-IC scores of isolated, homebound, and isolated+homebound men was −0.94 [95% confidence interval (CI), −1.68 to −0.21; P = 0.012], −0.27 (95% CI, −1.93 to 1.39; P = 0.746), and −4.03 (95% CI, −5.37 to −2.68; P < 0.001) in relation to that of the non-isolated and non-homebound group as reference. In women, the respective coefficients to the reference were −1.33 (95% CI, −2.93 to 0.25; P = 0.099), −0.65 (95% CI, −2.56 to 1.26; P = 0.501), and −3.01 (95% CI, −4.92 to −1.1; P = 0.002), respectively. CONCLUSION: The frequency of isolation was high in both female and male elderly diabetic patients. In men, there was a significant relationship between isolation and decline in high-level functional capacity. In both men and women, there was a significant relationship between isolation+homeboundness and decline in high-level functional capacity.