Mortality and causes of death in follow-up diabetic population in Japan.

There have been few reports of follow-up studies on mortality and causes of death from diabetics in Japan. One group of patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM) was followed up in Osaka and the other group in Tokyo. Results from both studies were almost the same in which diabetic nephropathy and coronary heart disease were important as the causes of death. Because of a small number of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) follow-up studies are difficult in Japan, and only one study was reported from the Diabetes Epidemiology Research International (DERI) Mortality Study Group. Although a very large mortality of IDDM in Japan was reported in this study, this is now improving rapidly.