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Up to 24,000 people with diabetes suffer an avoidable death in England each year

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Groundbreaking report also shows women with diabetes are nine times more likely to die young

Regional information to PCT level is available from this audit

Up to 24,000 people with diabetes are dying each year from causes that could be avoided through better management of their condition.

The first ever report into mortality from the National Diabetes Audit also found death rates among women aged 15 to 34 with diabetes are up to nine times higher than the average for this age group.

Poor management of a patient’s condition; such as not receiving basic healthcare checks, leading an unhealthy lifestyle and not taking medication appropriately, can increase the risk of death from causes including critically high or low blood sugar, heart failure or kidney failure. Good diabetes care greatly reduces the risk of heart failure or kidney failure, while good diabetes education can help people with diabetes to reduce their risk of dangerously high or low blood sugar.

Today’s report shows about three quarters of the 24,000 people with diabetes who die each year are aged 65 and over. However, the gap in death rates between those who have and do not have diabetes becomes more and more extreme with younger age.

About one in 3,300 women in England will die between the ages of 15 to 34; but this risk increases nine-fold among women with type 1 diabetes to one in 360, and six-fold among women with type 2 diabetes to one in 520.

A similar picture is true for young men with diabetes; men aged 15 to 34 in the English population are much more likely to die than women – at one in every 1,530; but this risk rises four-fold for men with type 1 diabetes to one in 360, and by just under four-fold among those with type 2 diabetes to one in 430.

This means two young people aged 15 to 34 may be dying each week from avoidable causes.

The findings echo conclusions made earlier this year by the National Diabetes Audit, which found nearly 450,000 children and younger adults (aged 0 to 54) with diabetes have high risk blood sugar levels that could lead to severe complications. The audit, which is managed by the NHS Information Centre and commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), also found this age group was the least likely to receive all the basic care checks required to monitor their condition.5, 6

Today’s report into mortality analysed data for 2.5 million people recorded between 2003/04 and 2009/10 in the National Diabetes Audit; linked to death certificate data from the Office of National Statistics. Cause of death has not been analysed.

The report also found:

  • There is a strong link between deprivation and increased mortality rates. Among under-65s with diabetes; the number of deaths among people from the most deprived backgrounds is double that of those from the least deprived backgrounds.
  • Death rates among people with diabetes vary according to where they live.7 London has the lowest rates for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, at 1.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively, while the highest rate for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes was in the North East, at 2.4 and 1.7 per cent respectively.

Audit lead clinician Dr Bob Young, consultant diabetologist and clinical lead for the National Diabetes Information Service, said: “For the first time we have a reliable measure of the huge impact of diabetes on early death. Many of these early deaths could be prevented. The rate of new diabetes is increasing every year. So, if there are no changes, the impact of diabetes on national mortality will increase. Doctors, nurses and the NHS working in partnership with people who have diabetes should be able to improve these grim statistics.”

The report can be accessed at www.ic.nhs.uk/nda

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre (The NHS IC) is England’s authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces more than 120 statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics. The NHS IC is the largest single provider of clinical audits to the NHS and carries out a range of audits, mainly funded by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, into cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
  2. The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is led by a consortium of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Nursing and National Voices. Its aim is to promote quality improvement, and in particular to increase the impact that clinical audit has on healthcare quality in England and Wales. HQIP hosts the contract to manage and develop the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). Their purpose is to engage clinicians across England and Wales in systematic evaluation of their clinical practice against standards and to support and encourage improvement in the quality of treatment and care. The programme comprises more than 30 clinical audits that cover care provided to people with a wide range of medical, surgical and mental health conditions.
  3. According to Quality and Outcomes Framework (The QOF), 2.34 million people in England have Diabetes. Diabetes comprises a group of disorders with many different causes, all of which are characterised by a raised blood glucose level. This is the result of a lack of the hormone insulin and/or an inability to respond to insulin. Insulin in the blood, produced by the pancreas, is the hormone which ensures that glucose (sugar) obtained from food can be used by the body. There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
  4. In people with Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas is no longer able to produce insulin because the insulin-producing cells (beta-cells) have been destroyed by the body’s immune system. Without insulin to move glucose from the bloodstream to the body’s cells, glucose builds up in the blood and is passed out of the body in the urine.
  5. In people with Type 2 diabetes, the beta-cells are not able to produce enough insulin for the body’s needs. The majority of people with Type 2 diabetes also have some degree of insulin resistance, where the cells in the body are not able to respond to the insulin that is produced.
  6. Commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and managed by the NHS Information Centre in partnership with Diabetes UK, the National Diabetes Audit is the largest of its kind in the world. It includes data from more than 80 per cent of the estimated 2.34 million people aged 17 and over with diagnosed diabetes in England. The 2010 National Diabetes Audit can be accessed at: www.ic.nhs.uk/nda
  7. The nine key processes of care for diabetes are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and are; HbA1c, BMI, blood pressure, albumin, creatinine, cholesterol, eye examinations, foot examinations and smoking.
  8. Variation by region referred to in this press release relates to Strategic Health Authority areas.
  9. For non-media enquires about The NDA or diabetes information and services at The NHS Information Centre, contact diabetes@ic.nhs.uk
  10. For media enquires please call 0845 257 6990 or contact: mediaenquiries@ic.nhs.uk