Socioeconomic differences in mortality among diabetic people in Finland: five year follow up.
OBJECTIVE
To compare socioeconomic differences in mortality (by cause of death) among diabetic people with those in the rest of the population.


METHODS
Five year follow up of mortality in the population of Finland, comparing people with diabetes and those without diabetes.


METHODS
Finland.


METHODS
All residents of Finland aged 30 to 74 included in the 1980 census. Subjects were classified as diabetic (230,000 person years) or other (12,400,000 person years) according to whether they were exempted from charges for medication for diabetes. During 1981-5 there were 114,058 deaths, of which 11,215 were in people with diabetes.


METHODS
Age standardised mortality by sex, social class, and cause of death for the diabetic and non-diabetic populations.


RESULTS
No significant social class differences in mortality were found among women with diabetes. Among diabetic men there was a slight increasing trend in mortality from the upper while collar group to the unskilled blue collar workers but it was much less steep than that of non-diabetic men.


CONCLUSIONS
Among people with diabetes in Finland the quality of treatment and compliance with treatment probably do not vary by socioeconomic status. Health education for diabetic people seems to be effective in all socioeconomic strata; in people from the lower strata this leads to greater changes because their health behavior was originally less good.
Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
S V
SV
Koskinen
T P
TP
Martelin
T
T
Valkonen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate