Mortality risk higher among people with diabetes when discharged from hospital

People with diabetes are at a higher risk of mortality when discharged from hospital, researchers have said.

A team from the University of Warwick has identified 48 risk different factors which they said should be considered when discharging those with diabetes.

This is the first systematic review of mortality risk factors post diabetes discharge and involved looking at 35 studies carried out around the world.

Professor Theo Arvanitis, from the Institute of Digital Healthcare at WMG, University of Warwick, said: “The most common risk factor is in the demographic category of age and the second most important factor is co-morbidity burden; this comes under the patient medical factors category, and means patients have more than one condition.

“We also identified BMI as a significant risk within the patient medical factors category, with those who were at the heavier end of the scales to be more at risk.

“Thirty-Seven of the risk factors we identified from one research paper. This tell us that this research in general is still very early, and more studies are needed to identify the importance and possibly any other risk factors. This could decrease the mortality rate of diabetics discharged from hospitals in the future.”

The researchers said their findings could be “particularly important for the future development of risk prediction models that can support the better identification of patients at most risk, and the tailoring of support strategies to individual patient needs in an evidence-based manner”.

The risk factors were grouped into nine categories which were:

  • · Demographic
  • · Socioeconomic
  • · Lifestyle
  • · Patient medical factors
  • · Inpatient stay factors
  • · Medication related
  • · Laboratory results
  • · Glycaemic status

The research has been published in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications.

To read the study, click here.

Photo by Bret Kavanaugh on Unsplash