[Diabetes mellitus in advanced age. 5: Longevity of senile diabetes patients examined in the Neustrelitz district 1962/63].

For all diabetics who were discovered in the Neustrelitz District in 1962/63 and who were aged between 62 and 81 when the disease manifested itself, reduction of expectation of life as compared with an age- and sex-adapted normal population could be calculated within the frame of a mortality follow-up. For the 62- to under 65-year-olds reduction in lifespan was 6.8 years; for the 65- to under 70-year-olds it was 5.6 years; for the 70- to under 75-year-old it was 4.1 years, and it was still detectable even in the group of the very old (75-81 years; 2.5 years). Only 15.6 per cent of the patients still reached, or even surpassed, a normal further expectation of life after the disease had become manifest. The much favourable prognosis established by renowned representatives of social medicine according to which the expectation of life of diabetics in the GDR corresponds to that of non-diabetics could not be confirmed by us.