@Chris, this is a great article, thanks so much for posting it!
Here is a part of the summary I found interesting:
The diabetic subjects had higher mortality at almost all end-points, especially those treated with insulin: the adjusted MRRs for alcohol-related deaths were 1.71 for diabetic men treated with Oral Antidiabetic Drug [T2s] and 6.92 for those on insulin; the respective MRRs for diabetic women were 2.10 and 10.60. There were more accident-related deaths among those treated with insulin (MRRs: 2.06 and 1.53 for men and women, respectively), and more suicides (MRR: 2.10 for men treated with insulin and 1.62 among women treated only with OAD). The results from the cohort study and the case-cohort study were rather similar. A time-dependent effect of diabetes was observed in alcohol-related mortality among men.
The MRR (Mortality Rate ratio) indicates how much mortality is seen in the population in question compared to the average. So, for instance for diabetic men treated with insulin, there were 692% deaths than for non-diabetic men per unit of population compared to 100% for a normal population unit.
So, in summary, what they saw was approximatively:
- 600% more deaths due to alcohol among insulin-dependent diabetic males (compared to normal population unit)
- 900% more deaths due to alcohol among insulin-dependent diabetic females
- 100% more accidental deaths among insulin-dependent diabetic males
- 50% more accidental deaths among insulin-dependent diabetic females
- 100% more suicide deaths among insulin-dependent diabetic males
The percentages are much lower among non-insulin-dependent PWDs, yet not negligible.