Diabetes causes more deaths than previously thought

The number of deaths from diabetes is higher than expected

Apparently, the fatal effects of diabetes have been underestimated so far. A new study on the number of deaths in Germany has now shown that people with diabetes have an up to 2.6-fold risk of dying compared to people without diabetes.

The researchers from the German Diabetes Center (DDZ) found in their study that the diabetes-related mortality is much higher than previously thought. The experts published the results of their study in the English-language journal Diabetes Care.

Many people in Germany and the rest of the world suffer from diabetes. Experts have now discovered that the deaths from diabetes or sequelae have been underestimated. The value seems to be much higher in reality. (Image: Syda Productions / fotolia.com)

Diabetes deaths have doubled in ten years

The current study on the number of deaths in Germany, which are due to a disease caused by diabetes, resulted in higher death rates than previously thought. The number of diabetes-related deaths has doubled in the period between 1990 and 2010, say the experts. In 2013 alone, approximately 5.1 million people worldwide and approximately 620,000 people in Europe had died of diabetes or diabetes-related sequelae. In other words, life expectancy for people with diabetes is about five to six years shorter on average compared to people of the same age without such a disease. People between the ages of 70 and 89 are the most affected. In addition, men seem to be particularly vulnerable. Statistically, ill men die ten years earlier compared to women with diabetes.

The data used in the study covers approximately 90 percent of the German population

To date, diabetes-related mortality in Germany has been calculated based on estimates from regionally limited cohort studies and surveys, the authors explain. However, only a few people with diabetes have been studied, the researchers add. The physicians evaluated the routine data of the statutory health insurance (SHI) to calculate the increased mortality from diabetes. "These data give us new opportunities to carry out epidemiological and care-relevant examinations for the whole of Germany", explains study author PD Dr. med. Wolfgang Rathmann, Deputy Director of the Institute for Biometry and Epidemiology at the German Diabetes Center and member of the Research Coordination Board of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) in a press release. The data used comprises about 90 percent of the German population.

Data from Denmark were included

Due to the lack of reliable estimates of the mortality of people with and without diabetes, the age- and gender-specific relative mortality from Denmark was included in the calculation, explain the scientists of the DDZ. Denmark and Germany have a comparable health care system and the prevalence of diabetes is comparable. With the help of the so-called age pyramid and the mortality table for Germany from the Federal Statistical Office in 2010, the age- and gender-specific excess deaths were calculated.

21 percent of all deaths in Germany in 2010 were attributable to diabetes

The experts' calculations showed that in 2010 alone, a total of 175,000 deaths (type 2 diabetes: 137,950 deaths) could have been prevented if the mortality rate of people with diabetes were the same as in those without diabetes , In other words, in 2010 alone, about 21 percent of all deaths in Germany were due to diabetes. Type 2 diabetes was associated with 16 percent of all deaths.

Further research is needed

The results of the study show that the official statistics on causes of death in Germany in 2010 does not reflect the actual number of people who died of diabetes and related complications. Internationally, a positive trend can be observed in the mortality rate of people with diabetes. For more than 20 years, mortality rates have continued to decline. This is partly due to improved care for people with diabetes and improved prevention and treatment of diabetes-related complications. Future investigations must now determine whether these positive trends can also be observed in Germany. (As)