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. 2023 Jan 31;20(3):2607.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032607.

Antidiabetic Drug Prescription Pattern in Hospitalized Older Patients with Diabetes

Ilaria Ardoino  1 , Sara Mandelli  1 , Marta Baviera  2 , Raffaella Rossio  3 , Alessandro Nobili  1 , Pier Mannuccio Mannucci  4 , Carlotta Franchi  1   5 , On Behalf Of Reposi Investigator
Affiliations

Antidiabetic Drug Prescription Pattern in Hospitalized Older Patients with Diabetes

Ilaria Ardoino et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: To describe the prescription pattern of antidiabetic and cardiovascular drugs in a cohort of hospitalized older patients with diabetes.

Methods: Patients with diabetes aged 65 years or older hospitalized in internal medicine and/or geriatric wards throughout Italy and enrolled in the REPOSI (REgistro POliterapuie SIMI-Società Italiana di Medicina Interna) registry from 2010 to 2019 and discharged alive were included.

Results: Among 1703 patients with diabetes, 1433 (84.2%) were on treatment with at least one antidiabetic drug at hospital admission, mainly prescribed as monotherapy with insulin (28.3%) or metformin (19.2%). The proportion of treated patients decreased at discharge (N = 1309, 76.9%), with a significant reduction over time. Among those prescribed, the proportion of those with insulin alone increased over time (p = 0.0066), while the proportion of those prescribed sulfonylureas decreased (p < 0.0001). Among patients receiving antidiabetic therapy at discharge, 1063 (81.2%) were also prescribed cardiovascular drugs, mainly with an antihypertensive drug alone or in combination (N = 777, 73.1%).

Conclusion: The management of older patients with diabetes in a hospital setting is often sub-optimal, as shown by the increasing trend in insulin at discharge, even if an overall improvement has been highlighted by the prevalent decrease in sulfonylureas prescription.

Keywords: antidiabetic drug; cardiovascular drug; hospital setting; older patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow-chart of the patients included in the study from 2010 to 2019. * Patients with Diabetes were identified as those with a diagnosis of diabetes at admission (International Classification of Disease 9-Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code: 250.*) or prescribed with an antidiabetic drug (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification Code = A10).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of patients with diabetes prescribed or not cardiovascular drugs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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