Goto A, et al. - Via analyzing death records from a diabetes specialist clinic in Japan, researchers estimated the exact causes of death, mortality rate, and life expectancy of diabetes patients. The study sample consisted of 6,140 participants (average age: 58.1 years). Over the follow-up period of 24,079 total person-years, 261 deaths were documented. Cancer, heart disease, and cerebrovascular diseases were the leading causes of death. The life expectancy at 40 years was 39.2 in men and 43.6 in women, the values of which were determined using a life table prepared from the mortality rates estimated with the exponential distribution model. Although it is necessary to interpret the current outcomes with caution compared with populations with diabetes surveyed by the Japan Diabetes Society during comparable periods, this population of diabetes patients had a comparable ranking of death causes.