Socioeconomic differences in mortality among diabetic people in Finland: five year follow up.

OBJECTIVE: To compare socioeconomic differences in mortality (by cause of death) among diabetic people with those in the rest of the population. DESIGN: Five year follow up of mortality in the population of Finland, comparing people with diabetes and those without diabetes. SETTING: Finland. SUBJECTS: All residents of Finland aged 30 to 74 included in the 1980 census. Subjects were classified as diabetic (230,000 person years) or other (12,400,000 person years) according to whether they were exempted from charges for medication for diabetes. During 1981-5 there were 114,058 deaths, of which 11,215 were in people with diabetes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Age standardised mortality by sex, social class, and cause of death for the diabetic and non-diabetic populations. RESULTS: No significant social class differences in mortality were found among women with diabetes. Among diabetic men there was a slight increasing trend in mortality from the upper while collar group to the unskilled blue collar workers but it was much less steep than that of non-diabetic men. CONCLUSIONS: Among people with diabetes in Finland the quality of treatment and compliance with treatment probably do not vary by socioeconomic status. Health education for diabetic people seems to be effective in all socioeconomic strata; in people from the lower strata this leads to greater changes because their health behavior was originally less good.