Average Life Expectancy of Diabetes Patients is Less Than the General Population

Average person with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) will live almost eight years less than the average person in the general population without diabetes, while those with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) will live around two years less, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal Cardiovascular Endocrinology & Metabolism. The authors used various data for their analysis. The UK National Diabetes Audit (NDA) published, for 2015-16, the all-cause standardized death ratio for people with T1DM and T2DM, along with data on their age and sex. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published for 2015-17 actual death rates of the general population for each age year and sex.

In their model, the authors used relative NDA mortality rates to population rates for each age/sex, and then measured the future life expectancy for T1DM/T2DM/non-DM populations.

The model revealed the 'average' person with T2DM has a life expectancy of 18.6 years than the 20.3 years for the equivalent non-diabetic population, corresponding to lost life years (LLY) of 1.7 years/average person with T2DM.

Compared with the average LLY for men, the average LLY/person was 21 percent higher for women with T1DM and 45 percent higher for women with T2DM.

They conclude: "Linking poor glycaemic control to expected death in such a quantitative way may incentivize clinicians and diabetes patients and poor blood sugar control to improve their efforts to achieve targets."

Source-Medindia