When analyzing only patients with diabetes needing dialysis, physicians had shorter durations from initial DM diagnosis to initial dialysis and from initial dialysis to death compared with the general patient group (52 vs. 60 months, and 13 vs. 14 months, respectively; data not shown). Moreover, severe comorbidities affected physicians with DM dramatically, and the physicianswith comorbidities more often required dialysis. This study found that the physicians with diabetes had an increased risk of death if they were male, older, required dialysis, or sufferedfrom cancer or other serious health conditions.