INS and diabetes mellitus: Metformin provides a mortality benefit in individuals with diabetes compared to sulfonylureas and insulin, as indicated herein with proportionality values of 0.12 and < 0.0001, respectively, suggesting that the role of time course should be further investigated for the latter relationship in particular to elucidate information comparing the risk of mortality with short- and long-term use, as this study looked at overall incidence and did not stratify cohorts based on time.