Total and cause-specific mortality in a population based cohort of diabetics in Greece

Eleven years after a diabetes detection drive--conducted in a sample of 21,410 individuals--a follow-up study showed that 207 persons had died from a total of 489 previously known diabetics. Ten year survival rates were lower in male and female diabetics as compared to those observed in the general population. In addition it was shown that diabetic patients died more often from cardiovascular causes compared to sex and age matched samples of the general population (males 63.3% vs 44.3%; females 76.0% vs 51.7%). No mortality differences by the type of hypoglycaemic treatment were noted.