All-Cause and Vascular-Related Death Rates Are Declining Among Diabetics

Rates of complications from diabetes — particularly cardiovascular complications — have fallen in recent years, but the effect of these changes on cause-specific mortality is unknown. Researchers obtained data on nearly 700,000 U.S. adults who were surveyed between 1980 and 2014 and linked survey data to mortality data. About 50,000 participants had diabetes.

All-cause death rates in adults with diabetes declined by 20% every 10 years: Vascular-related deaths, cancer-related deaths, and deaths from other causes fell by 32%, 16%, and 7%, respectively, each decade. Death rates among adults with diabetes continued to exceed rates among those without diabetes in all categories, but absolute differences between people with and without diabetes in…