Patients with type 2 diabetes had higher rates of hospitalization than the general population

We describe the rate, causes, and predictors of hospitalization for all patients with type 2 diabetes in a diabetes clinic in Turin, Italy and compare their hospitalization rates with those of the general population.

All patients were recruited and followed up for hospital admissions from January 1996 to June 2000. The role of risk factors was analyzed with a conditional proportional hazard model for repeated events.

More than 50% of the patients had been admitted to hospital at least once for any cause, and 30% had had multiple admissions, accounting for nearly 90% of all days in hospital. For these patients, older age, high glycated hemoglobin level, obesity, insulin treatment, presence of nephropathy, coronary and peripheral artery disease and comorbidity were statistically independent predictors of hospital admission. The standardized hospital admission ratios were 158.8 for men <65 years of age and 113.3 for men > or = 65 years and 245.2 for women <65 years of age and 135.3 for women > or = 65 years of age. The highest ratios were for diabetes, vascular (cardiac and cerebral) diseases, and eye diseases in younger women.

Patients with type 2 diabetes, and particularly younger women, had higher rates of hospitalization than the general population, with an excess risk of about 30%.