Improved survival among patients with complicated type 2 diabetes in Denmark: a prospective study (2002-2010).
BACKGROUND
It is unclear to what extent recent advances in diabetes care have reduced the excess mortality in patients with complicated type 2 diabetes.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to estimate time trends in mortality among patients with complicated type 2 diabetes at the Steno Diabetes Center relative to the general Danish background population. DESIGN, SETTING, AND STUDY PARTICIPANTS: We performed a longitudinal follow-up study from 2002 to 2010 of 5844 patients with type 2 diabetes at the Steno Diabetes Center, Denmark. All-cause and cause-specific mortality was identified from the national death register.


METHODS
Poisson regression was used to model mortality rates by sex, age, age of diabetes onset, and calendar time.


RESULTS
A total of 1341 deaths occurred (802 men and 539 women) during 32,913 person-years of follow-up. Total mortality rates in the diabetes population decreased by 5.5% (95% confidence interval 2.9%-8.0%) per year in men and by 3.3% (0.0%-6.4%) per year in women. Among men but not women, this decline was significantly steeper than the decline in mortality in the Danish background population (men, -3.0% [-5.6% to -0.4%]; women, -1.4 [-4.6% to 2.0%]). The decline in overall mortality was explained by a decline in cardiovascular mortality for both men and women.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall and cardiovascular mortality have decreased during the last decade among Danish patients with complicated type 2 diabetes, and for men, the decline in mortality was more pronounced than in the general population.
Steno Diabetes Center, DK-2820 Gentofte, Denmark.
Kristine
K
Færch
Bendix
B
Carstensen
Thomas Peter
TP
Almdal
Marit Eika
ME
Jørgensen
D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications* / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends