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Diabetics are more likely to suffer head and neck cancers, according to a new study.

Taiwanese researchers found that people with diabetes mellitus were more likely to develop head and neck cancer, which is the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide. Statistics show that this type of cancer head and neck cancer accounts for about 6 percent of all cases worldwide and affects an estimated 650,000 people and kills 350,000 people each year.

After examining data from Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Research Database, researchers found that the risk of head and neck cancer was 1.47 times higher in patients newly diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.

Researchers said that latest study compared 89.089 diagnosed with diabetes control patients without DM-related claims in 2011. Participants were aged 40 to 65 years old.

"Because we adequately controlled for the confounding factors, our findings disclose a higher incidence of HNC in patients with DM and highlight the importance of monitoring patients with DM for HNC," lead researcher Kuo-Shu Tseng of the Taiwan University of Technology in Taiwan wrote in the study.

The findings are published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.