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An estimated 215,000 children have diabetes. To determine how advances in treatment have affected mortality rates, investigators at the Centers for Disease Control analyzed data from the National Vital Statistics System between1968 and 2009 for all deaths in youth aged <19 years with diabetes listed as an underlying cause.
During the 4 decades, diabetes-related mortality decreased 61%, from an annual rate of 2.69 per million in 1968 and 1969 to 1.05 per million in 2008 and 2009. The decrease in death rate was greater among children younger than 10 years than among those aged 10 to 19 years (78% vs. 52%). Among the younger children, the annual percentage change in death rates was –5.7% between 1968 and 1995, but then slowed dramatically or ce…