Excess mortality related to diabetes mellitus in elderly Medicare beneficiaries.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether diabetes remains an important contributor to mortality among the elderly.


METHODS
A 5% national sample of Medicare claims was utilized to create a retrospective cohort study. Participants were 148,562 persons with at least one hospitalization or two outpatient visits for diabetes in 1994, who were alive on January 1, 1995, were > or =65 years old, and were not in managed care in 1994; and 148,562 age, gender, and race matched controls without diabetes. Deaths were ascertained through 1999. Survival and proportional hazards analysis were used to calculate rates and relative risks.


RESULTS
The mortality rate was 100.2/1000 person years (PY) among seniors with diabetes compared with 60.6/1000 PY without diabetes (age adjusted relative risk (RR)=1.83, 95% CI: 1.81-1.86). Non-white minorities had a similar RR associated with diabetes (Hispanic 2.37, Asian 1.95, Native American 2.38, blacks 1.64) as whites (1.86). The mortality risk associated with diabetes decreased with increasing age, but remained significantly elevated even among those aged 85 years and older. In contrast, the absolute excess mortality attributed to diabetes increased with age.


CONCLUSIONS
The excess mortality associated with diabetes amongst all older ages suggests that greater attention to optimal diabetes treatment and prevention is needed.
Bertoni
Alain G
AG
Department of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. abertoni@wfubmc.edu
Kirk
Julienne K
JK
Goff
David C
DC
Wagenknecht
Lynne E
LE
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015331:Cohort Studies; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data