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Multicenter Study
. 2016 Feb 18;11(2):e0148630.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148630. eCollection 2016.

Hypoglycemia and Medical Expenses in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Analysis Based on the Korea National Diabetes Program Cohort

Sang Youl Rhee  1 , Soo Min Hong  2 , Suk Chon  1 , Kyu Jeung Ahn  1 , Sung Hoon Kim  3 , Sei Hyun Baik  4 , Yong Soo Park  5 , Moon Suk Nam  6 , Kwan Woo Lee  7 , Jeong-Taek Woo  1 , Young Seol Kim  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Hypoglycemia and Medical Expenses in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Analysis Based on the Korea National Diabetes Program Cohort

Sang Youl Rhee et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background and aims: Hypoglycemia is one of the most important adverse events in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, hypoglycemia-related events are usually overlooked and have been documented less in clinical practice.

Materials and methods: We evaluated the incidence, clinical characteristics, and medical expenses of hypoglycemia related events in T2DM patients based on the Korea National Diabetes Program (KNDP), which is the largest multi-center, prospective cohort in Korea (n = 4,350). For accurate outcomes, the KNDP data were merged with claims data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) of Korea.

Results: During a median follow-up period of 3.23 years (95% CI: 3.14, 3.19), 88 subjects (2.02%) were newly diagnosed with hypoglycemia, and the incidence of hypoglycemia was 6.44 cases per 1,000 person-years (PY). Individuals with hypoglycemia were significantly older (59.7±10.7 vs. 53.3±10.4 years, p < 0.001), had more hospital visits (121.94±126.88 days/PY, p < 0.001), had a longer hospital stays (16.13±29.21 days/PY, p < 0.001), and incurred greater medical costs ($2,447.56±4,056.38 vs. $1,336.37±3,403.39 /PY, p < 0.001) than subjects without hypoglycemia.

Conclusion: Hypoglycemia-related events were infrequently identified among the medical records of T2DM subjects. However, they were associated significantly with poor clinical outcomes, and thus, hypoglycemia could have a substantial burden on the Korean national healthcare system.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Subjects with T2DM enrolled based on the Korea National Diabetes Program (KNDP) cohort data.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Comparisons between subjects with and without hypoglycemia after adjusting for age, follow-up period, duration of diabetes, recuperation period, BMI, cerebrovascular disease, DM medication, antihypertensive medication, TG, and ALT levels.
(A) Number of hospital visits. (B) Length of hospital stays. (C) Medical expenses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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