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(HealthDay News) — Mortality from both diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) increased from 2014 to 2019, according to a study published online May 12 in The American Journal of Medicine.

Vardhmaan Jain, MD, from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues used data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research database to identify adults (25 years or older) where both CVD and DM were listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death between 1999 and 2019.

The researchers found that the age-adjusted mortality rate was higher for men than women, with increasing mortality in men between 2014 and 2019 (annual percent change, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 0.3 to 1.6). For non-Hispanic Black adults, the age-adjusted mortality rate was highest: twofold higher versus non-Hispanic white adults. In recent years, both young and middle-aged adults (25 to 69 years) had increasing age-adjusted mortality rates. There were significant urban-rural disparities observed, with increases in age-adjusted mortality rates in rural counties from 2014 to 2019 (annual percent change, 2.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 2.9).

“Taken together, these findings point toward the need for primary prevention of DM and an increased awareness, early diagnosis, and close monitoring of cardiometabolic risk factors among patients with DM to prevent cardiovascular complications and mortality,” a coauthor said in a statement.

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