Patients with diabetes have a three-fold increased risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, a primary care study has shown. The longitudinal cohort study recruited 103 participants aged 65 years or above, from practices in South London, who had mild cognitive impairment. Patients were reassessed four years later. Mild cognitive impairment is a term used to describe people with memory impairment on formal testing who are otherwise functioning well and do not meet clinical criteria for dementia. 'This study provides further evidence that diabetes is associated with faster cognitive decline but at the same time offers the hope that, for this group of patients, we may be able to prevent or slow progression of their condition by more rigorous control of their diabetes. Unfortunately, however, no methodologically sound randomised controlled trials have yet been carried out to investigate this possibility.'