THE 1984 TASMANIAN INSULIN-TREATED DIABETES-MELLITUS PREVALENCE COHORT - AN 8 AND A HALF YEAR MORTALITY FOLLOW-UP INVESTIGATION

Total mortality and underlying cause of death were examined in a popul ation-based prevalence cohort (n = 1232) of Tasmanians with insulin-tr eated diabetes mellitus. Eight and a half years after the establishmen t of the registry, the cause of death based on death certificate infor mation was determined for the overall cohort and for three classificat ion groups of insulin-treated diabetes: Group A - childhood-onset IDDM cases; Group B - adult-onset IDDM cases; and Group C - adult-onset in sulin-treated NIDDM cases. A total of 378 deaths occurred, providing a n overall SMR of 2.2 (95% CI 2.0-2.4) compared to the Tasmanian popula tion. Diabetic females experienced a higher SMR (2.6, 95% CI 2.3-3.0) than diabetic males (1.9, 95% CI 1.6-2.2), The all-cause SMRs for the diabetic classification groups were 4.6 (95% CI 3.4-6.1) in Group A, 1 .8 (95% CI 1.5-2.1) in Group B, and 2.2 (95% CI 1.9-2.6) in Group C. A fter adjusting for age, gender and duration of diabetes, the mortality in Group C was significantly higher compared to Group B (odds ratio 1 .6, 95% CI 1.2-2.3), This study indicates that people with childhood-o nset IDDM experience 4.6 times the death rate compared to the Tasmania n population and that the excess mortality is most pronounced in femal es.