Research

Hormonal

Maintaining lower HbA1c levels (<7%) is associated with slower progression of biological aging, as measured by the deficit accumulation frailty index, over an 8-year period in adults with type 2 diabetes.

If you have type 2 diabetes, keeping your average blood sugar (HbA1c) below 7% is linked to slower biological aging and less physical decline over time compared to higher levels. Work with your doctor to achieve this target safely, as it appears to protect your long-term health.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Baseline and average HbA1c levels over time of <7%, as compared with ≥8%, were associated with less increase in FI scores over 8 years (both P ≤ 0.002).
Felicia Simpson et al. · Diabetes Care · 2022

Why this rating

Large randomized controlled trial (Look AHEAD) with 4,169 participants and 8-year follow-up, though this specific analysis is observational within the trial arms.

Source

An Examination of Whether Diabetes Control and Treatments Are Associated With Change in Frailty Index Across 8 Years: An Ancillary Exploratory Study From the Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) Trial

Felicia Simpson et al. · Diabetes Care · 2022

DOI 10.2337/dc22-1728

rct · n=4169Cited 21×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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