Mortality in youth-onset type 1 and type 2 diabetes: The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study.

AIMS: To estimate short-term mortality rates for individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes diagnosed before age 20 years from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study.

METHODS: We included 8358 individuals newly-diagnosed with type 1 (n = 6840) or type 2 (n = 1518) diabetes from 1/1/2002-12/31/2008. We searched the National Death Index through 12/31/2010. We calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) based on age, sex, and race for the comparable US population in the geographic areas of the SEARCH study.

RESULTS: During 44,893 person-years (PY) of observation (median follow-up = 5.3 years), 41 individuals died (91.3 deaths/100,000 PY); 26 with type 1 (70.6 deaths/100,000 PY) and 15 with type 2 (185.6 deaths/100,000 PY) diabetes. The expected mortality rate was 70.9 deaths/100,000 PY. The overall SMR (95% CI) was 1.3 (1.0, 1.8) and was high among individuals with type 2 diabetes 2.4 (1.3, 3.9), females 2.2 (1.3, 3.3), 15-19 year olds 2.7 (1.7,4.0), and non-Hispanic blacks 2.1 (1.2, 3.4).

CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the state populations of similar age, sex, and race, our results show excess mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes, females, older youth, and non-Hispanic blacks. We did not observe excess short-term mortality in individuals with type 1 diabetes.