Diabetes and Decline in Heart Disease Mortality in US Adults

Abstract

Mortality from heart disease has declined substantially in the United States during the past 30 years.^1-4 Because heart disease is the major cause of death associated with diabetes,^5,6 it would be expected that the mortality decline in the United States as a whole also would have been experienced by those with diabetes. However, no study has examined whether people with diabetes in the United States have benefited from this general phenomenon and, if so, whether the extent of their mortality rate decline is similar to that of people without diabetes.