Diabetes: alcohol risk for young people with type 1 diabetes
13 September 2011
Alcohol is becoming an important cause of death among people with type 1 diabetes, researchers warn.
Finnish researchers studied 17,306 people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when aged under 30 between 1970 and 1999. They logged 1338 deaths (BMJ 2011, online 8 Sep).
People with early onset type 1 diabetes (diagnosis up to age 14) had improved survival rates due to a fall in long-term complications.
But in people with later onset type 1 diabetes (at age 15–29 years) an increase in alcohol and drug-related mortality (39 per cent of deaths) and acute (short-term) complications outweighed this benefit.
Young people with type 1 diabetes may need guidance on the effects of alcohol, they concluded.
Last Reviewed: 16 September 2011
- 1. Harjutsalo V, Forsblom C, Groop P. Time trends in mortality in patients with type 1 diabetes: nationwide population based cohort study. BMJ 2011; 343: d5364. [Epub 8 Sep 2011]. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d5364. http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5364 (accessed Sep 2011).
