Mortalidad por diabetes mellitus y sus complicaciones, Ciudad de La Habana, 1990-2002

objective: to identify the mortality due to diabetes mellitus and its complications as a direct cause of death in ciudad de la habana and its distribution according to demographic variables during 1990-2002. methods: a descriptive and retrospective research was conducted. databases of those deceased due to diabetes mellitus registered in the statistics provincial department were used. results: there was a trend to decrease of diabetes mellitus mortality as a basic cause and its complications as direct cause of death, except for a moderate increase of renal complications. as more frequent direct causes of death were the cardiovascular complications; mortality was greater after 65 years old mainly in the 80-84 age groups and in the female sex. the municipalities with higher death adjusted rates were habana del este, guanabacoa, diez de octubre, san miguel del padrón, marianao and lisa. conclusions: in these places the medical care must to be increased to diabetes persons and try to decrease the mortality due this disease.