The study, published in Diabetes (2006, vol 55, issue 3), investigated the trend of diabetes-related deaths and illnesses in New York City. Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University analyzed New York death records for 1989 through 1991 and 1999 through 2001 and hospitalization discharge records for 1988 through 2001.
The researchers found that deaths from diseases such as stroke and cancer declined. However, deaths from diabetes rose 61 percent for men and 52 percent for women. Findings also revealed that heart attacks in diabetic patients increased from 21 percent to 36 percent, with the number of diabetics having heart attacks doubling. Furthermore, hospital days due to heart attack decreased for all patients, except for diabetics who experienced a 51 percent increase in hospital days.
"These data document a marked upsurge in diabetes-related mortality and morbidity in New York City, including a sharp increase in diabetic patients hospitalized for myocardial infarction," the study authors write. "If continued, this threatens the long-established nationwide trend to reduced coronary artery disease events."
Posted by Kristopher Foster on May 15, 2006 04:49 AM
