The Association Between Insulin Initiation and Adverse Outcomes After Hospital Discharge in Older Adults: a Population-Based Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Starting insulin therapy in hospitalized patients may be associated with an increase in serious adverse events after discharge. OBJECTIVE: Determine whether post-discharge risks of death and rehospitalization are higher for older hospitalized patients prescribed new insulin therapy compared with oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs). DESIGN: Retrospective population-based cohort study including hospital admissions in Ontario, Canada, between April 1, 2004, and Nov 30, 2013. PATIENTS: Persons aged 66 and over discharged after a hospitalization and dispensed a prescription for insulin and/or an OHA within 7 days of discharge. We included 104,525 individuals, subcategorized into four mutually exclusive exposure groups based on anti-hyperglycemic drug use in the 7 days post-discharge and the 365 days prior to the index admission. MAIN MEASURES: Prescriptions at discharge were categorized as new insulin (no insulin before admission), prevalent insulin (prescribed insulin before admission), new OHA(s) (no OHA or insulin before admission), and prevalent OHA (prescribed OHA only before admission) as the referent category. The primary and secondary outcomes were 30-day deaths and emergency department (ED) visits or readmissions respectively. KEY RESULTS: Of 104,525 patients, 9.2% were initiated on insulin, 4.1% died, and 26.2% had an ED visit or readmission within 30 days of discharge. Deaths occurred in 7.14% of new insulin users, 4.86% of prevalent insulin users, 3.25% of new OHA users, and 3.45% of prevalent OHA users. After adjustment for covariates, new insulin users had a significantly higher risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.46 to 1.74) and ED visit/readmissions (aHR 1.17, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.22) than prevalent OHA users. CONCLUSIONS: Initiation of insulin therapy in older hospitalized patients is associated with a higher risk of death and ED visits/readmissions after discharge, highlighting a need for better transitional care of insulin-treated patients.

Validation of cooling detection threshold as a marker of sensorimotor polyneuropathy in type 2 diabetes.

AIM: We aimed to validate the performance cooling detection thresholds (CDT) to detect diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSP) in type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Two hundred and twenty participants with type 2 diabetes underwent clinical and electrophysiological examinations including 3 small fiber function tests: CDT, heart rate variability (HRV) and LDIFLARE. Clinical DSP was defined by consensus criteria whereas preclinical DSP was defined by presence of at least one electrophysiological abnormality. Area under the curve (AUC) and optimal thresholds were determined by receiver operating characteristic curves. RESULTS: Participants were aged 63 ± 11 years with mean HbA1c of 7.5 ± 1.6%. The 139 (63%) clinical DSP cases had mean CDT values of 18.3 ± 8.9°C; the 52 (24%) preclinical DSP cases had 25.3 ± 3.5°C; and the 29 (13%) controls had 27.1 ± 3.8°C; (p-value<0.02 for all comparisons). For identification of clinical DSP cases, AUCCDT was 0.79 which exceeded AUCHRV (0.60, p=<0.0001) and AUCLDI FLARE (0.69, p=0.0003), optimal threshold <22.8°C (64% sensitivity, 83% specificity). Preclinical DSP AUCCDT was 0.80, also exceeding the other 2 measures (p<0.02 for both comparisons), optimal threshold ≤27.5°C (83% sensitivity, 72% specificity). CONCLUSIONS: CDT had good diagnostic performance for identification of both clinical and preclinical neuropathy in type 2 diabetes. Its use as a non-invasive screening tool should be considered for research and clinical practice.

Measurement of cooling detection thresholds for identification of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy in type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Compared to recently-studied novel morphological measures, conventional small nerve fiber functional tests have not been systematically studied for identification of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSP). We aimed to determine and compare the diagnostic performance of cooling detection thresholds (CDT) in a cross-sectional type 1 diabetes cohort. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: 136 subjects with type 1 diabetes and 52 healthy volunteers underwent clinical and electrophysiological examination for DSP classification concomitantly with the Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Score (TCNS) and three small fiber function tests: CDT, heart rate variability (HRV), and laser doppler imaging of axon-mediated neurogenic flare responses to cutaneous heating (LDIFLARE). Area under the curve (AUC) and optimal thresholds were determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves in the type 1 diabetes cohort. RESULTS: Type 1 diabetes subjects were 42±17 years of age with mean HbA1c 7.9±1.7%. Fifty-nine (45%) met the case definition for DSP. CDT values were lowest in cases with DSP (18.3±8.4°C) compared to controls without DSP (28.4±3.5°C) and to healthy volunteers (29.6±1.8°C; p-value for both comparisons<0.0001). AUCCDT was 0.863 which was similar to AUCTCNS (0.858, p = 0.24) and AUCHRV (0.788, p = 0.05), but exceeded AUCLDIFLARE (0.750, p = 0.001). The threshold of <25.1°C was equivalent to the lower bound of the healthy volunteer 95% distribution [25.1, 30.8°C] and performed with 83% sensitivity and 82% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Akin to novel small fiber morphological measures, CDT is a functional test that identifies DSP with very good diagnostic performance. These findings support further research that revisits the role of CDT in early DSP detection.

The impact of income on the incidence of diabetes: a population-based study.

AIMS: Diabetes rates are increasing dramatically, and certain populations are at greater risk. Low income status is associated with higher diabetes prevalence and higher mortality. The effect of income on diabetes incidence is less well understood. METHODS: Using a validated, population-based diabetes registry and census data from Ontario, Canada, we compared the rate of new diabetes cases among persons aged 20 years or older between April 1st 2006 and March 31st 2007 between neighborhood income quintiles, and assessed for age- and sex-based differences. RESULTS: There were 88,886 new cases of diabetes in Ontario adults during our study period (incidence rate 8.26/1000, 95% confidence interval, CI 8.20-8.31). Rates increased with age and were higher in males versus females. Increasing income quintile was associated with a significantly decreased diabetes incidence (8.70/1000, 95% CI 8.57-8.82 in the lowest quintile, vs. 7.25/1000, 95% CI 7.14-7.36 in the highest quintile, p<0.0001). Significant interactions were found between income quintile (1, 2, and 3 vs. 5) and age groups (20-39, 40-59 vs. 80+ years) (p<0.01) and sex (p<0.01), such that the impact of income was more pronounced in younger compared to older age groups and in females versus males. DISCUSSION: This population-based study found that diabetes risk is significantly higher in lower compared to higher income groups, and that this income gap was widest in younger persons and females. Greater diabetes preventive efforts directed toward younger and female lower-income populations are necessary, in order to lessen the lifelong burden of diabetes for an already disadvantaged population.