Diabetes mellitus: mortalidade como causa básica e associada no município de Niterói (RJ) em 1993

In order to contribute with epidemiological indicators that can evaluate the importance of the Diabetes mellitus, one of the main public health problems of the world nowadays, a study was carried out based on death certificate informations. The Diabetes mellitus mortality was estabilished by the analisys of the multiple causes of death based on informations of death certificates of residents of Niteroi (RJ) city in 1993. This aspect of the analysis was carried out in order to demonstrate that the disease is often underreported as an afecction that contributes to death processes, when studied only as underlying cause of death. The “ratio of reported to underlying cause” for Niteroi (RJ) city was 2,21 in 1993. The mention of Diabetes mellitus as multiple cause of death was frequently observed among death certificates of women and increased with age. Such pattern described in others studies were also observed in Niteroi (RJ) city in 1993. Many studies of Diabetes mellitus as multiple causes of death demonstrate that the main afecctions mentioned in death certificates of diabetic persons are cardiovascular diseases, mainly cardiac diseases. For Niteroi (RJ) city in 1993 the main afecctions mentioned in death certificates of diabetic were cardiovascular diseases. In death certificates which had Diabetes mellitus as underlying cause, cerebrovascular diseases were the most frequent among coexistent afecctions; in death certificates with Diabetes mellitus as an associated cause, the principal underlying causes of death were cardiac diseases.