Health outcomes improving for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, says Swedish study

The number of people with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes who are dying from diabetes and diabetes-related complications has declined in Swede, according to a new study.
A similar decline in all-cause mortality was observed between people with type 1 diabetes and those without diabetes, although fatal outcomes declined less among those with type 2 diabetes.
Scientists from the University of Gothenburg found there was a 40 per cent decrease in heart disease and stroke in people with type 1 diabetes, while a 20 per cent decrease was observed among those with type 2 diabetes.
Study author Dr Aidin Rawshani, University of Gothenberg, said: “We believe the changes observed in our study most likely reflect a combination of advances in clinical care for patients with diabetes.
“Perhaps the most important is improved management of cardiovascular risk factors.”
The researchers used the Swedish National Database from 1998 through 2012 to compare the number of deaths which had occurred in those who had diabetes.
The database contains data from nearly 37,000 people with type 1 diabetes and more than 457,000 people with type 2 diabetes. Each person with diabetes was matched with a control for age and sex.
People with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes were found to have improved outcomes for all-cause mortality and diabetes-related complications such as heart disease and stroke, even though both diabetes groups had worse outcomes than those without diabetes.
A finding of particularly interest to the research was that complications related to heart failure decline among those with type 2 diabetes, compared to controls, but among people with type 1 diabetes.
The study has been published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.