Improvements in life expectancy in type 1 diabetes patients in the last six decades

AimsTo investigate the survival with diabetes in patients treated with insulin from diagnosis.Subjects and methodsWe analyzed 845 subjects, 55.9% males, registered at “I. Pavel” Bucharest Diabetes Centre, insulin-treated from diagnosis, aged <40 years and deceased between 1946 and 2005. We divided the subjects in two groups by age at diagnosis: group A <18 years and group B 18–39.99 years. We used 20 years time periods for year of death: 1946–1965, 1966–1985 and 1986–2005.ResultsThe mean age at diabetes onset was 30.36 ± 8.04 years, disease duration at death 20.98 ± 11.62 years and age at death 51.34 ± 14.37 years. The mean increase in survival with diabetes was 19.3 years for group A and 15.9 years for group B. There was a significant decrease in infections in both groups. The increase in coronary heart diseases and stroke is evident only in group B.ConclusionsWe found no changes in age at onset, which combined with an increase in survival with diabetes lead to a significant increase in age at death over the six decades analyzed.