Three Essays On Diabetes And Mortality In The United States
type: CreativeWork
description: Diabetes is on the rise. The world faces an emerging deadly threat on people’s health and nations’ public-health systems with a large economic burden. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people living with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 (WHO, 2016). In the United States, more than 80 million people are living with diabetes or prediabetes and this number is projected to double by 2050 (CDC, 2017). Diabetes is a serious and life-threatening condition that occurs when the body cannot regulate blood sugar. When diabetes is not appropriately controlled, it causes dire consequences for health and well-being of individuals. Furthermore, compelling empirical evidence has shown a strong association between diabetes and premature death (Gu, Cowie and Harris, 1998). In 2016, the number of deaths in the world due to diabetes was 1.6 million and this number is expected to increase (WHO, 2016). Thus, reducing excess deaths from diabetes has been one of the main goals of global efforts, such as 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development developed by the WHO (UN General Assembly, 2015). Accordingly, public health policy makers and health providers have called for better diabetes prevention interventions and disease management programs designed to reduce the risk of mortality due to diabetes. This dissertation aims to contribute to these efforts by filling critical gaps in the previous literature on diabetes and mortality. The gaps this dissertation focuses on are threefold. First, the fraction of total deaths attributable to diabetes is seriously underestimated when an underlying cause of death on death certificates is used to assess the contribution of diabetes to overall mortality, which is a commonly used method to assess the contribution of diabetes to a national mortality profile. Second, despite a body of literature on the association between diabetes and mortality, few prospective studies have examined this associa…
abstract: Diabetes is on the rise. The world faces an emerging deadly threat on people’s health and nations’ public-health systems with a large economic burden. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people living with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 (WHO, 2016). In the United States, more than 80 million people are living with diabetes or prediabetes and this number is projected to double by 2050 (CDC, 2017). Diabetes is a serious and life-threatening condition that occurs when the body cannot regulate blood sugar. When diabetes is not appropriately controlled, it causes dire consequences for health and well-being of individuals. Furthermore, compelling empirical evidence has shown a strong association between diabetes and premature death (Gu, Cowie and Harris, 1998). In 2016, the number of deaths in the world due to diabetes was 1.6 million and this number is expected to increase (WHO, 2016). Thus, reducing excess deaths from diabetes has been one of the main goals of global efforts, such as 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development developed by the WHO (UN General Assembly, 2015). Accordingly, public health policy makers and health providers have called for better diabetes prevention interventions and disease management programs designed to reduce the risk of mortality due to diabetes. This dissertation aims to contribute to these efforts by filling critical gaps in the previous literature on diabetes and mortality. The gaps this dissertation focuses on are threefold. First, the fraction of total deaths attributable to diabetes is seriously underestimated when an underlying cause of death on death certificates is used to assess the contribution of diabetes to overall mortality, which is a commonly used method to assess the contribution of diabetes to a national mortality profile. Second, despite a body of literature on the association between diabetes and mortality, few prospective studies have examined this associa…
author: Choi, Daesung
language: en
date published: 2019
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:47:40Z
provider: University of Pennsylvania
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Pennsylvania