Diabetes-Related Inpatient Stays

Diabetes-Related Inpatient Stays, a statistical brief from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, presents statistics on nonmaternal inpatient stays involving type 1 or type 2 diabetes among patients.

The most common form of diabetes is type 2 diabetes, which is characterized by the body's improper use of insulin. Type 2 diabetes is most often diagnosed in adulthood and is associated with nonoptimal weight, poor diet, and lack of exercise. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the body's inability to produce insulin and is more often diagnosed in childhood than type 2 diabetes. Both types of diabetes, if untreated, result in elevated levels of blood glucose that can lead to serious complications over time, such as cardiovascular disease, kidney damage, stroke, blindness, and limb amputation.

Highlights:

• In 2018, there were more than 8 million hospital stays involving type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounted for 95 percent of these stays.
• Whereas the largest portion of stays involving type 1 diabetes was for patients aged 18-34 years (33 percent), the largest portion of stays involving type 2 diabetes was for patients aged 65-84 years (50 percent).
• Of stays involving type 1 or type 2 diabetes, 20 and 18 percent, respectively, were for Black patients (vs. 14 percent of stays for patients without diabetes).
• For adults aged 18-64 years, the in-hospital mortality rate was twice as high for stays for type 2 as those for type 1 diabetes (40.9 vs. 20.4 per 10,000 stays).
• The leading principal diagnosis for stays involving type 1 diabetes was diabetes—accounting for half of all stays with any diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, followed by septicemia and acute/unspecified renal failure. The leading principal diagnosis for stays involving type 2 diabetes was septicemia, accounting for 10 percent of all stays with any diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

Select to access Diabetes-Related Inpatient Stays.