Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To evaluate rates and predictors of all cause mortality in African-Americans with type 1 diabetes. Methods: An 8 year follow-up study was conducted on the 725 African-Americans with type 1 diabetes who participated in the New Jersey 725 study. Vital status was ascertained annually from contact with the patient, family members, hospital records, and/or vital status records. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were used to evaluate predictors of all cause mortality. Results: Over the mean three-year follow-up period, 131(18.1%) patients, 60 men and 71 women, died. Only one patient was lost to follow-up. Three-year mortality rates were 7% for women and 11% for men. Compared to the general African-American population, standardized mortality ratio was 12(9.4-15.1) for women and 6.1 (4.7-7.9) for men. Older age, low socioeconomic status, lower body mass index, higher diastolic blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, proteinuria, severity of diabetic retinopathy, and alcohol consumption were independent and significant predictors of all cause mortality in this group of African-American patients. Microproteinuria at the initial examination had a greater impact on mortality rates in men compared with women ( p<0.001). Conclusions: Mortality rates in African-Americans with type 1 diabetes are high. Microproteinuria and other potentially modifiable factors such as hypertension, alcohol consumption, and social class are independent predictors of mortality in this ethnic group.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: ris • diabetes • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: out