Issue 210 Item 3 Diabetes In Elderly Ups Mortality

Diabetes substantially increases premature deaths among the elderly. In a new study Dr. Bertoni and his colleagues showed among people 65 and older, the mortality rate was 10 percent per year in people who had diabetes contrasted with 6 percent per year for those without diabetes.

"The main implication of our findings is that diabetes-related mortality may be expected to increase in relative importance compared to other causes of death in the elderly, given recent trends of increasing diabetes prevalence," Bertoni said.

The result was something of a surprise, since several other population studies had suggested that though diabetes caused "excess mortality" in younger people, diabetes was less deadly in the elderly, he said.

"These new findings suggest that prevention of diabetes among the elderly should be a priority," Bertoni said.
The work of Alain G. Bertoni at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has been published in the online edition of Annals of Epidemiology.