Elwen, FR, Huskinson, A, Clapham, L et al. (6 more authors) (2015) An observational study of patient characteristics and mortality following hypoglycemia in the community. BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, 3 (1). e000094.
Abstract
Objectives: Characterize diabetes patients with severe hypoglycemia requiring emergency services intervention at home and investigate 12 month mortality. Research design and methods: Emergency services call-outs for hypoglycemia were recorded between 2005 and 2013 in an area covering 34000 patients with diabetes. Patient characteristics were documented together with capillary blood glucose (CBG), HbA1c and treatment for hypoglycemia. 12 month mortality and variables influencing survival were analysed. Results: In 1835 episodes amongst 1156 patients, 45% had type 1 diabetes (68.2% males), 44% had type 2 diabetes (49.4% males) with a minority unclassified. CBG at presentation (mean±SD) was 1.76±0.72 mmol/L in type 1 diabetes and 1.96±0.68 mmol/L in type 2 diabetes patients (p<0·0001), with higher HbA1c in the former group (8.3±1.52% (67.5±16.4 mmol/mol) and 7.8±1.74% (61.6±19.0 mmol/mol), respectively; p<0·0001). A third of type 2 diabetes patients were not on insulin therapy and displayed lower HbA1c compared with insulin users. Glucagon was used in 37% of type 1 diabetes and 28% of type 2 diabetes patients (p<0.0001). One year mortality was 4.45% in type 1 diabetes and 22.1% in type 2 diabetes. Age and type of diabetes were predictive of mortality in multivariable analysis, whereas CBG levels/frequency of hypoglycemia had no effect. Conclusions: Severe hypoglycemia in the community is common with a male predominance in type 1 diabetes. Severe hypoglycemia in non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes patients is associated with lower HbA1c compared with insulin users. Severe hypoglycemia appears to be associated with increased mortality at 12 months, particularly in type 2 diabetes. KEY MESSAGES Severe hypoglycemia in the community is common, and presents a large burden on both patients and healthcare workers. Using a large database of ambulance call-outs for hypoglycemia this study aimed to characterise those requiring the emergency services for an episode of hypoglycemia, and to investigate factors that may be associated with an increased risk of mortality. We found that a third of type 2 diabetes patients having severe hypoglycemic episodes were not using any insulin, these individuals had a lower HbA1c than those with type 2 diabetes requiring insulin treatment. 12 month mortality following an episode of severe hypoglycemia was high, especially in individuals with type 2 diabetes. More research is required to investigate the cause of death in these patients
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2015, The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Hypoglycemia; mortality; HbA1c |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) > Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics (LIGHT) > Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Jun 2015 12:10 |
Last Modified: | 01 Mar 2019 11:53 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2015-000094 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMJ Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/bmjdrc-2015-000094 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:87331 |