Excess risk has not improved over time and may be increasing for certain infections in young adults
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 23, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Rates of hospitalizations for common infections requiring hospitalization remain substantially higher in adults with diabetes compared with adults without diabetes, according to a study published online Oct. 15 in Diabetes Care.
Jessica L. Harding, Ph.D., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues used the 2000 to 2015 National Inpatient Sample and the National Health Interview Surveys to estimate rates of infections requiring hospitalizations in adults with versus without diabetes.
The researchers found that in 2015, hospitalization rates were almost four times higher in adults with versus without diabetes (rate ratio, 3.8); the rate could be as much as 15.7 times as high, depending on infection type. Between 2000 and 2015, rates of hospitalizations increased from 63.1 to 68.7 per 1,000 persons in adults with diabetes and from 15.5 to 16.3 in adults without diabetes. However, since 2008, rates declined 7.9 percent in adults without diabetes (from 17.7 to 16.3 per 1,000 persons), although no significant decline was seen in adults with diabetes. In adults with diabetes, the lack of decline in hospitalizations was driven by significant increases in rates of foot infections and cellulitis and by lack of decline for pneumonia and postoperative wound infections in young adults.
“Findings from this study highlight the need for greater infectious risk mitigation in adults with diabetes, especially young adults with diabetes,” the authors write.
One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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