Introduction:

The recent increase in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Cuba occurred more rapidly, and policies aimed at its control require systematic quantification.

Objective:

To identify the differences in Cuba, according to province and sex, of the years of healthy life lost due to diabetes mellitus in 2015.

Methods:

The national extension study collected data on the healthy years of life lost as a result of the sum of years lost from potential life due to premature mortality and years of life lost due to morbidity and other indicators to identify early mortality in 2015.

Results:

In all provinces, the rates of years of healthy life lost due to morbidity exceeded those of premature mortality with a predominance of women, while in most provinces, the ages of death were earlier in the male sex. The differences found allowed to group Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Santi Spíritus and Camagüey provincesn with the highest averages of years lost due to morbidity and later deaths, and the rest of the Cuban provinces, with the lowest years lost due to morbidity, but with deaths at younger ages.

Conclusions:

Losses of years of healthy life differ by sex and province. This knowledge allows the identification of different patterns of morbidity and mortality useful to guide the prevention and control actions of the disease for each territory.