Decreases in diabetes-free life expectancy in the U.S. and the role of obesity.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

With increasing life expectancy in the U.S., it is important to know whether a longer life expectancy means a longer healthy life span or a prolonged period of later-life morbidity. This study examines changes in lifetime without diabetes, a leading cause of morbidity in later life.

Research design and methods

Using demographic methods and nationally representative data, we estimated changes in diabetes-free life expectancy between 1980-1989 and 2000-2004 for adult men and women in the U.S., estimated the contribution of changes in age-specific diabetes rates, and examined the changing effects of weight status on diabetes risks.

Results

While life expectancy at age 18 for men and women increased between the 1980s and the 2000s, diabetes-free life expectancy

SUBMITTER: Cunningham SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3177736 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature