Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018;64(2):139-151.
doi: 10.1080/19485565.2018.1542291. Epub 2018 Dec 20.

Effect of Diabetes on Life Expectancy in the United States by Race and Ethnicity

Samuel H Preston  1 , Daesung Choi  1 , Irma T Elo  1 , Andrew Stokes  2
Affiliations

Effect of Diabetes on Life Expectancy in the United States by Race and Ethnicity

Samuel H Preston et al. Biodemography Soc Biol. 2018.

Abstract

We investigated the impact of diabetes on US life expectancy by sex and race/ethnicity using a prospective cohort study design. Cohorts were drawn from 1997-2009 waves of the National Health Interview Survey and linked to death records through December 31, 2011. We combined data on the prevalence of diabetes among decedents with estimates of the hazard ratios of individuals diagnosed with diabetes to calculate population attributable fractions (PAFs) by age, sex, and race/ethnicity at ages 30 and above. These estimates were then applied to deaths in the official US life table for 2010 to estimate effects of diabetes on life expectancy. Diabetes was responsible for a reduction of 0.83 years of life expectancy for men at age 30 and 0.89 years for 30-year-old women. The impact was greatest among Black women at 1.05 years. Estimates based on traditional demographic and actuarial methods using the frequency with which a disease appears as an underlying cause of death on death certificates produced a reduction in life expectancy at age 30 of only 0.33 years. We conclude that diabetes is substantially reducing US longevity and that its effect is seriously underestimated when using data on underlying causes of death.

Keywords: Diabetes; Life Expectancy; Mortality; Population Attributable Fraction; Race/ethnicity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of Diagnosed Diabetes among Deaths (Figure 1A) and Proportion of Deaths Attributable to Diabetes (PAF) (Figure 1B) by Sex and Race/Ethnicity at Ages 30 and Above, 1997–2011 NHIS-LMF.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Menke A, Casagrande S, Geiss L, Cowie CC. Prevalence of and Trends in Diabetes Among Adults in the United States, 1988–2012. JAMA [Internet] 2015;314(10):1021–9. Available from: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2015.10029 - PubMed
    1. Stokes A, Preston S. Deaths Attributable to Diabetes in the United States: Comparison of Data Sources and Estimation Approaches. PLoS One [Internet] 2017;12(1):e0170219 Available from: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170219 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Preston SH, Heuveline P, Guillot M. Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes Wiley-Blackwell; 2001.
    1. Bowers N, Gerber H, Hickman J, Jones D, Nesbitt C. Actuarial Mathematics 2nd ed. Society of Actuaries; 1997.
    1. Arias E, Heron M, Teleda-Vera B. United States life tables eliminating certain causes of death, 1999–2001. Natl Vital Stat Reports 2013;61(9):1–128. - PubMed

Publication types