Recent Trends in Diabetes-Associated Hospitalizations in the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine trends in diabetes-related hospitalizations over the period 2010 to 2019 using Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) to facilitate informed policies regarding diabetes-related prevention and management. Between 2010 and 2019, there were 304 million hospitalizations above 18 years of age, of which 78 million were diabetes-associated hospitalizations. The overall population-adjusted diabetes hospitalizations significantly increased from 3079.0 to 3280.8 per 100,000 US population (relative increase, 6.6%, Ptrend < 0.028). Age-stratified analysis showed that hospitalizations significantly increased for 18–29 years (relative increase, 7.8%, Ptrend < 0.001) while age- and gender-stratified analysis showed that diabetes hospitalization significantly increased for 18–29-year males (relative increase, 18.1%, Ptrend < 0.001). Total hospitalization charge increased from 97.5 billion USD in 2010 to 132.0 billion USD in 2019 (relative increase, 35.4%, Ptrend < 0.001). Our study’s findings suggest that diabetes-associated hospitalizations will continue to increase in the future because recent evidence indicates a reappearance of diabetes complications. It is important to screen, prevent, and control diabetes at a younger age based on the trends observed in our study.