Bohn B, et al. - Researchers undertook a comparative assessment of the chance of hospital admissions in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) to that without T1D from Germany. Children and adolescents with T1D in Germany demonstrated a 4 to 8 times higher hospitalization chance than children without T1D. Higher odds ratio (OR) was reported in T1D patients compared to peers in girls than in boys. It was deduced that high rates of elective hospital admission in Germany could contribute to these results.

Methods

• Data was extracted from the German information system for health care data.
• It comprised of information on all patients with a statutory health insurance.
• The years 2009 and 2011 were taken into account.
• Researchers analyzed children and adolescents (0 to ≤19 years of age; n = 12,030,242).
• Unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) assisted in comparing the hospitalization rate for patients with (n = 26,444) or without T1D (12,003,798).
• T1D was detected via documented insulin treatment and by ICD-code E10/14.
• Stratification of the results was performed by age-group (0-5; >5-10; >10-15, >15-19 years) and gender.

Results

• In all age-groups, higher hospitalization chance was reported in patients with T1D compared to that of their peers (database 2011).
• Findings revealed highest OR in >5 to 10-year-old patients (OR 8.1; 95% CI: 7.7-8.5), followed by patients >10 to 15 years (OR 7.4; 95% CI: 7.1-7.7) and patients ≤5 years (OR 5.3; 95% CI: 4.8-5.7).
• The presence of lowest OR was noted among patients >15 to 19 years (OR 4.0; 95% CI: 3.9-4.2). Higher OR was determined for hospital admission in girls with T1D compared to boys.
• The most frequent reasons for hospitalization in T1D were discovered to be “T1D without complications” (68.4%) and “T1D with ketoacidosis” (18.6%).