Excess risk of injury among people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes compared to the general population.
Objective: To estimate the relative risk and excess hospitalisation rate for injury in people with diabetes compared to the general population.
Research Design and Methods: Data were obtained from the Australian National Diabetes Services Scheme, hospitalisation datasets, the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the National Death Index, and the census spanning from 2011 – 2017. Hospitalisations for injury were coded as: injuries to the head and neck, lower extremity, upper extremity, abdominal and thoracic; burns; and other injury. Poisson regression was used to estimate the age and sex adjusted relative risk of injury hospitalisation.
Results: The total number of hospitalisations due to any injury was 117,705 in people with diabetes and 3,463,173 in the general population. Compared to the general population, an elevated adjusted risk of admission was observed for any injury (RR 1.22 [95% CI: 1.21, 1.22]), head and neck (1.28 [1.26, 1.30]), lower extremity (1.24 [1.23, 1.26]), abdominal and thoracic (1.29 [1.27, 1.30]), upper extremity (1.03 [1.02, 1.05]), burns (1.52, [1.44, 1.61]), and other injury (1.37 [1.33, 1.40]).. The adjusted relative risk of any injury was 1.62 [1.58, 1.66] in people with type 1 diabetes, 1.65 [1.63, 1.66] in those with type 2 diabetes who were taking insulin, and 1.07 [1.06, 1.08] in people with type 2 diabetes not using insulin. Falls were the primary cause of injury in people with diabetes.
Conclusion: People with diabetes, especially those using insulin, had a higher risk of hospitalisation for injury compared to the general population.
