Mortality from Diabetes Mellitus in Jamaica1

Mortality data for 8,799 Jamaican diabetics who died between 1970 and 1979 were collected by reviewing the death certificates of all Jamaicans that were recorded for that period. Diabetes was found to account for 6.5% of all deaths; 62% of these deaths occurred among females; and diabetics were found to die earlier than nondiabetics. There was also underreporting of diabetes in the official Registrar General’s statistics, in that about a third of the decedents who had diabetes recorded on their death certificates were not coded as having died of diabetes, because the disease was not recorded as the underlying cause of death. Vascular disease was a prime cause of death among these diabetics.