Epidemiology of hypoglycaemic episodes leading to hospitalisations in Denmark in 1998-2018

Risk factors and prediction of hypoglycaemia using the Hypo-RESOLVE cohort: a secondary analysis of pooled data from insulin clinical trials

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

The objective of the Hypoglycaemia REdefining SOLutions for better liVES (Hypo-RESOLVE) project is to use a dataset of pooled clinical trials across pharmaceutical and device companies in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes to examine factors associated with incident hypoglycaemia events and to quantify the prediction of these events.

METHODS

Data from 90 trials with 46,254 participants were pooled. Analyses were done for type 1 and type 2 diabetes separately. Poisson mixed models, adjusted for age, sex, diabetes duration and trial identifier were fitted to assess the association of clinical variables with hypoglycaemia event counts. Tree-based gradient-boosting algorithms (XGBoost) were fitted using training data and their predictive performance in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) evaluated on test data. Baseline models including age, sex and diabetes duration were compared with models that further included a score of hypoglycaemia in the first 6 weeks from study entry, and full models that included further clinical variables. The relative predictive importance of each covariate was assessed using XGBoost's importance procedure. Prediction across the entire trial duration for each trial (mean of 34.8 weeks for type 1 diabetes and 25.3 weeks for type 2 diabetes) was assessed.

RESULTS

For both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, variables associated with more frequent hypoglycaemia included female sex, white ethnicity, longer diabetes duration, treatment with human as opposed to analogue-only insulin, higher glucose variability, higher score for hypoglycaemia across the 6 week baseline period, lower BP, lower lipid levels and treatment with psychoactive drugs. Prediction of any hypoglycaemia event of any severity was greater than prediction of hypoglycaemia requiring assistance (level 3 hypoglycaemia), for which events were sparser. For prediction of level 1 or worse hypoglycaemia during the whole follow-up period, the AUC was 0.835 (95% CI 0.826, 0.844) in type 1 diabetes and 0.840 (95% CI 0.831, 0.848) in type 2 diabetes. For level 3 hypoglycaemia, the AUC was lower at 0.689 (95% CI 0.667, 0.712) for type 1 diabetes and 0.705 (95% CI 0.662, 0.748) for type 2 diabetes. Compared with the baseline models, almost all the improvement in prediction could be captured by the individual's hypoglycaemia history, glucose variability and blood glucose over a 6 week baseline period.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

Although hypoglycaemia rates show large variation according to sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and treatment history, looking at a 6 week period of hypoglycaemia events and glucose measurements predicts future hypoglycaemia risk.

Ongoing burden and recent trends in severe hospitalised hypoglycaemia events in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in Scotland: A nationwide cohort study 2016-2022

AIMS

We examined severe hospitalised hypoglycaemia (SHH) rates in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in Scotland during 2016-2022, stratifying by sociodemographics.

METHODS

Using the Scottish National diabetes register (SCI-Diabetes), we identified people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes alive anytime during 2016-2022. SHH events were determined through linkage to hospital admission and death registry data. We calculated annual SHH rates overall and by age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Summary estimates of time and stratum effects were obtained by fitting adjusted generalised additive models using R package mgcv.

RESULTS

Rates for those under 20 with type 1 diabetes reached their minimum at the 2020-2021 transition, 30% below the study period average. A gradual decline over time also occurred among 20-49-year-olds with type 1 diabetes. Overall, females had 15% higher rates than males with type 2 diabetes (rate ratio 1.15, 95% CI 1.08-1.22). People in the most versus least deprived quintile experienced 2.58 times higher rates (95% CI 2.27-2.93) in type 1 diabetes and 2.33 times higher (95% CI 2.08-2.62) in type 2 diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite advances in care, SHH remains a significant problem in diabetes. Future efforts must address the large socioeconomic disparities in SHH risks.

Medication-Related Hospital Admissions and Emergency Department Visits in Older People with Diabetes: A Systematic Review

Limited data are available regarding adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and medication-related hospitalisations or emergency department (ED) visits in older adults with diabetes, especially since the emergence of newer antidiabetic agents. This systematic review aimed to explore the nature of hospital admissions and ED visits that are medication-related in older adults with diabetes. The review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. Studies in English that reported on older adults (mean age ≥ 60 years) with diabetes admitted to the hospital or presenting to ED due to medication-related problems and published between January 2000 and October 2023 were identified using Medline, Embase, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts databases. Thirty-five studies were included. Medication-related hospital admissions and ED visits were all reported as episodes of hypoglycaemia and were most frequently associated with insulins and sulfonylureas. The studies indicated a decline in hypoglycaemia-related hospitalisations or ED presentations in older adults with diabetes since 2015. However, the associated medications remain the same. This finding suggests that older patients on insulin or secretagogue agents should be closely monitored to prevent potential adverse events, and newer agents should be used whenever clinically appropriate.

Risk of Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events, Severe Hypoglycemia, and All-Cause Mortality in Postpancreatitis Diabetes Mellitus Versus Type 2 Diabetes: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE

Postpancreatitis diabetes mellitus (PPDM) is a frequent complication of pancreatitis and associates with poor glycemic control. We investigated the risk of adverse diabetes-related outcomes in PPDM compared with type 2 diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

In this Danish population-based cohort study, we included adults (>18 years) with incident PPDM or type 2 diabetes between 1998 and 2018 through national health registries. PPDM was further divided into acute (PPDM-A) and chronic (PPDM-C) subtypes. We ascertained risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), severe hypoglycemia, and all-cause mortality as well as incidence rates of severe hypoglycemia. We compared risk and incidence rates across diabetes subgroups using multivariate Cox and Poisson regression analyses.

RESULTS

We identified 383,325 people with incident type 2 diabetes, 3,418 with PPDM-A, and 2,461 with PPDM-C. Compared with type 2 diabetes, PPDM-C was associated with increased risks of severe hypoglycemia (hazard ratio [HR] 5.27, 95% CI 4.62-6.00, P < 0.001) and all-cause mortality (HR 1.54, 95% CI 1.45-1.64, P < 0.001). Similar patterns were observed for people with PPDM-A. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for severe hypoglycemia were increased in both PPDM-C (IRR 7.38, 95% CI 6.75-8.08, P < 0.001) and PPDM-A (IRR 3.76, 95% CI 3.36-4.21, P < 0.001) compared with type 2 diabetes. Findings were consistent in an analysis restricted to people on insulin and in an analysis including pancreatitis patients without diabetes as comparator group.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with type 2 diabetes, PPDM is associated with excess risk of adverse diabetes-related outcomes. This has important implications for management.