Premature mortality due to diabetes in Japan: a nationwide analysis from 2000 to 2020

We examined if there has been improvements in the lifespan of people who died from diabetes in Japan between 2000 and 2020 using the novel average lifespan shortened (ALSS) measure.

The number of deaths due to diabetes in Japan were obtained from the World Health Organization mortality database. We calculated age standardized rates (ASR) using direct method adjusted to the World Standard Population. Years of life lost (YLL) due to diabetes was calculated using Japanese life tables. ALSS measure was calculated as a ratio of YLL to the expected lifespan. We used the bootstrap method to calculate 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the ALSS measure.

The ASR of deaths due to diabetes decreased from 5.5 to 3.7 deaths per 100,000 people in men, and from 2.9 to 1.5 deaths in women over the study period. The ALSS results show that men with diabetes lost 18.0% (95% CI 17.7-18.3) of their lifespan at the beginning of the study period, but only 14.3% (95% CI 14.1-14.6) of their lifespan at the end of the study period. Similarly, the ALSS values for women decreased from 15.0% (95% CI 14.7-15.2) of their lifespan to 12.1% (95% CI 11.9-12.3) at the end of the study period.

Results from the new ALSS measure show lifespan of people who died from diabetes prolonged by about 4 and 3 percentage points in men and women over the study.