The epidemiology of diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Some account is given of the distribution of mortality from diabetes mellitus in the world and in England and Wales. In the broad sense, high mortality rates are found in countries of high standards of living, whose fats are obtained from animal sources and low mortality in countries, not merely with lower standards of living but whose fats are obtained from vegetable oils. Adjusted mortality rates for diabetes mellitus in England and Wales, plotted by geographical counties and compared with adjusted mortality rates for all counties, show high mortality rates in predominantly agricultural counties. Up to the end of the first world war, mortality from diabetes mellitus was found to be highest in males, but over the past 25 years a reversal has taken place to produce mortality rates in females 25% above those for males. Statistics from life insurance companies show that the tendency to develop diabetes increases with the degree of overweight. The racial susceptibility of the Jews is not borne out by the extremely low mortality from diabetes mellitus in Israel, yet receives some support from the finding that the adjusted mortality from diabetes in Stepney, a Metropolitan Borough with a largely Jewish population, is some 50% higher than the rate for Bermondsey.