After several clinical trials in both type 1 and type 2 DM, there is a reasonable certainty that about half of the incidence and rate of progression of indicators of microvascular complications (retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy) can be prevented or delayed by achieving and maintaining near-normalization of glycemic levels. Consequently, there has been a uniform trend in recent guidelines to advise a near-normalization of glycemic levels in both type 1 and type 2 DM. Note, however, that the clinical consequences of microvascular deterioration are dependent not only on glycemic levels but also on the duration of the disease. With the early onset of diabetes typical in type 1 patients, there is sufficient time for development of clinical microvascular complications, and prevention of these complications is a goal of treatment in type 1 diabetics. In contrast, the prevalence of hard clinical endpoints indicative of microangiopathy, such as renal failure or blindness, is very low in patients in whom the disease is diagnosed after the 5th decade, the greatest age of prevalence of patients with type 2 DM in this country. Furthermore, microvascular complications can be minimized by the well-established benefits of blood pressure and lipid control, as well as by therapeutic intervention (photocoagulation, cataract extraction). Since the costs and efforts necessary to reach near-normal levels of glycemia are very high, there is a need to determine the cost/benefit ratios of such expenditures in the population subject to type 2 diabetes, namely patients in their 6th to 8th decades of life.