Type 1 diabetes can shorten the lifespans of patients by 10 years or more, according to a new study from Dundee University in Scotland.
The Scottish Diabetes Research Network collaborated with researchers from Dundee University in carrying out a study that showed patients with type 1 diabetes die more than a decade earlier than normal. Life expediencies were reduced by 13 years in women with the condition, while diabetic men lived an average of 11 years less than other males in the study.
Diabetics in the 1970's in the United States faced lifespans shortened by an average of 27 years. Medical investigators have conducted significant research since that time, improving life expectancy for patients with the disease.
Diabetes is a group of conditions, in which the body is unable to properly process sugars from food. The disease is present in two forms, Type 1 and Type 2.
Type 1 diabetes marked by a failure of the pancreas to produce enough insulin to process sugars. It is most often diagnosed in children, and was once known as juvenile diabetes. This is the less common of the disorders, found in just one out of every 20 diabetic patients.
"Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. With the help of insulin therapy and other treatments, even young children can learn to manage their condition and live long, healthy lives," the American Diabetes Association reported on their Web site.
Helen Colhoun and Shona Livingstone of Dundee University led the research, examining the current effect of type 1 diabetes on lifespans in Scotland.
Before the development of insulin treatments for patients in 1921, just half of all people with diabetes lived 20 months or more after diagnosis. Just 10 percent of those patients lived five years or longer.
"However, in the middle of the 20th century, there was still a 20-year reduction in life expectancy for those diagnosed with type 1 diabetes; 50% of individuals with youth-onset disease failed to reach the age of 55 years," Michelle Katz wrote in a piece in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) accompanying the research article.
Life expectancy for diabetes is improving on average, although people suffering from the disorder continue to die at a younger age than the population at large. Chronic and acute complications from diabetes can often be fatal.
Estimated Life Expectancy in a Scottish Cohort With Type 1 Diabetes, 2008-2010, highlighting details of the study of the effects of the disease on lifespan, was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
