Objective: To analyze mortality trend by diabetes mellitus in Brazilian capitals.
Methods: It was analyzed mortality temporal trend by diabetes mellitus in Brazilian capitals, from the death data of the statistic directory of IBGE and the System of Mortality Information of the Ministry of Health, in the period from 1950 to 2000.
Results: It was observed the growth of proportional mortality and the Standard Mortality Ratio by diabetes in most of the capitals. São Paulo (SP) outstood for presenting expressive and constant proportional mortalities along the series, particularly from 1960. As to the Standard Mortality Ratio in this capital, as well as in Belo Horizonte (MG), where it was noticed the oscillation of these indicators tending to decrease in the last years, it was not observed significant trends.
Conclusions: Mortality trend by diabetes is increasing in most of the capitals, with the exception of São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, which have shown different patterns from the other capitals.