Diabetes Mortality Data Trends for 2000-2008 DS 10-10001
California Total Population
Diabetes was California’s seventh leading cause of death from 2000 through 2008 and the seventh leading cause of death nationally in 2007, the most recent year for which national data is available.
The age-adjusted diabetes death rate was lower in California than the United States each year from 2000 through 2007. National-level data is not available for 2008. The chart below displays California’s age-adjusted death rates for 2000 through 2008, compared with the available United States rates.
California’s age-adjusted diabetes death rate ranged from 20.6 to 23.0 between 2000 and 2008 and has decreased for the last three consecutive years. The 2008 rate of 20.6 was the lowest during the nine years studied. There was no statistically significant trend over the entire period. Annual age-adjusted death rates are shown in Table 3 (PDF)
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There were 63,440 diabetes deaths in California from 2000 through 2008. This represented 3.0 percent of all California deaths during the same period. The average age of death due to diabetes for the California population was 72.1 years.
Diabetes primarily affects older people. Fifty percent of diabetes deaths during this time occurred to people aged 75 and older, and when people aged 65 to 74 were included it rose to over 70 percent.
The chart below shows the age distribution of diabetes deaths for all California residents.
The risk of dying from diabetes increases with age. The minimum and maximum annual age specific death rates for 2000 through 2008 and age groups that had reliable rates during each study year were as follows:
• 25-34 years (0.9, 1.4)
• 35-44 years (3.1, 3.9)
• 45-54 years (10.3, 12.8)
• 55-64 years (30.1, 34.0)
• 65-74 years (70.7, 84.1)
• 75-84 years (153.3, 168.4)
• 85+ years (238.2, 285.6)
Annual age-specific diabetes death rates for the California population are displayed in Table 2a (PDF).
During this period, the actual risk of dying (or crude death rate) from diabetes ranged from 18.2 to 20.8 per 100,000 population. Annual diabetes crude death rates for the California population are displayed in Table 2a (PDF) under the “All Ages” column.
See the Technical Notes for information about rate calculation and trend analysis.