Impact of Anxiety Disorders on Mortality for Persons With Diabetes: A National Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background: Most studies of the relationship between psychiatric disorders and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have focused on the role of depression.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of anxiety disorders (ADs) on mortality in persons with DM in Taiwan.

Methods: We used Taiwan׳s National Health Insurance claims database interlinked externally with Taiwan׳s Death Registry to study mortality in diabetic patients with and without ADs during the study period 2000-2004. Five-year survival cures were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method for DM with ADs and DM without ADs. Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the predictive factors for DM mortality.

Results: We identified 5685 persons with DM, including 732 (12.88%) who also had ADs. The 5-year survival was longer for diabetic patients with ADs than those without it. A higher risk of mortality was found in diabetic patients who were male. It was also higher for those who were 45-64 years old and ≥65 years old, those who resided in rural areas, those who had incomes
Conclusions: ADs confer some protection from mortality in patients with DM. Our findings add valuable epidemiological information from a different ethnic population.