OBJECTIVE To examine the long-term mortality experience of blacks who develop IDDM in childhood.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The 11–25-year mortality status of individuals with IDDM who participated in the Diabetes Epidemiology Research International (DERI) Mortality Study was verified as of 1 January 1990 for 1,008 (94%) of the 1,076 individuals in the study. Life-table analysis was performed, and race-specific rates were determined for the final sample.

RESULTS Among black patients, 14.9% died compared with 6.6% of the white patients after a maximum of 25 years of follow-up. African-Americans experienced an age-adjusted mortality rate that was over twice that of whites for the entire period (9.4 vs. 3.8 per 1,000 person-years, respectively; P < 0.05) and at each 5-year interval of follow-up. Among blacks, the mortality rate for females (15.9/1,000 person-years) was 8.4 times (P < 0.05) that of males (1.9/1,000 person-years). In contrast, this sex difference was not seen among whites. Acute complications of diabetes accounted for 40% of the mortality in the black patients, while only 23% of the white patients died from acute causes.

CONCLUSIONS The data suggest that some of the excess mortality in black IDDM patients may be preventable.