Declining Incidence of Nephropathy in Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

The high relative mortality among patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus results mainly from diabetic nephropathy. The cumulative incidence of nephropathy of 25 to 30 percent among patients who had had diabetes for 25 years remained stable from 1950 to the early 1980s. In a population study, we assessed recent trends in the incidence of diabetic nephropathy.