Poster Presentation Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association Annual Scientific Meeting 2017

The incidence, frequency and length of stay for all-cause hospitalisation in adults with impaired fasting glucose and diabetes mellitus: a longitudinal study (#272)

Muhammad Amber A Sajjad 1 , Kara L Holloway 1 , Lelia L F de Abreu 1 , Mohammadreza Mohebbi 1 , Mark A Kotowicz 1 2 3 , Daryl Pedler 1 , Julie A Pasco 1 2 3
  1. Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  2. Department of Medicine-Western Health, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. University Hospital Geelong, Barwon Health, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Objective To determine whether adults with normoglycaemia, Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) and diabetes differed according to the incidence, frequency, length and reasons for hospitalisation.

Methods The study included 971 men and 924 women, aged 20+ years, participating in the Geelong Osteoporosis Study. Glycaemic status was assessed at baseline using fasting plasma glucose (FPG), use of anti-hyperglycaemic medication and/or self-report. IFG was defined as FPG ≥5.5mmol/L and diabetes as FPG≥7.0mmol/L, use of anti-hyperglycaemic medication or self-report. Participants were followed for admissions to the region’s major tertiary hospital (median 7.4 years, IQR 5.3-9.6). Using regression analyses adjusted for age, BMI, alcohol use and socioeconomic status, odds ratio (OR) for incidence, incident risk ratio (IRR) for frequency rate and median, 3rd quartile and 9th decile for length of hospitalisation were calculated. Finally, we classified primary admission diagnoses into broad categories using the International Classification of Diseases, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM).

Results Participants with diabetes, compared to those with normoglycaemia, were twice as likely to be hospitalised for any cause during the follow-up period (OR 2.07, 95%CI 1.42-3.02), had a higher frequency (IRR 1.61, 95%CI 1.17-2.23), and longer hospital stay (3rd quartile difference 7.7, 95%CI 1.3-14.1 and 9th decile difference 16.2, 95%CI 4.2-28.3). The IFG group was similar to normoglycaemia for incidence (OR 1.1, 95%CI 0.8-1.4), frequency (IRR 0.9, 95%CI 0.7-1.1) and length of hospitalisation (3rd quartile difference (-4.4, 95%CI -0.6-0.6) and 9th decile difference (-9.4, 95%CI -2.2-2.2)). Cardiovascular disease-related diagnoses were the most common primary reasons for hospitalisation across all glycaemic categories.

Conclusions Diabetes was associated with increased incidence, frequency and length of all-cause hospitalisation, however we did not detect any associations for IFG. Interventions to reduce hospitalisations should focus on preventing the progression from IFG to diabetes and reducing cardiovascular risk in IFG and diabetes.