Age-adjusted diabetes mortality rates vary in local communities in a metropolitan area: racial and spatial disparities and correlates.

Objective: Diabetes has held steady as the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. since 2006. While aggregated data provide insights into how the country as a whole, or even as states, is faring with respect to diabetes mortality, disaggregation provides data that may facilitate targeted interventions and community engagement.

Research Design And Methods: We analyzed deaths from diabetes for residents of Chicago to calculate age-adjusted diabetes mortality rates (AADMRs). We calculated AADMRs for Chicago by race/ethnicity and community area. We also examined the correlation between AADMR and 1) racial/ethnic composition of a community area and 2) median household income.

Results: The AADMR for Chicago (27.5 per 100,000 population) was significantly higher than the national rate (22.5). Within both the U.S. and Chicago, the highest AADMRs were found among non-Hispanic blacks, followed by Hispanics, and then non-Hispanic whites. Within Chicago, Puerto Ricans displayed the highest AADMR at 45.7, compared with 35.0 at the national level. There was a strong positive correlation between the proportion of black residents in a community area and the AADMR (0.64). There was a strong negative relationship between household income and the AADMR for the entire city (-0.63) and for the predominantly black community areas (-0.52).

Conclusions: These data provide insight into where the worst diabetes mortality problems reside in Chicago. Our hope is that these data can be used to work toward the development of solutions to the very high diabetes mortality rates observed in several communities in Chicago and in similar communities throughout the U.S.