Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have been reported to have longer duration of in-hospital stay (DS). Identifying factors influencing their DS may help in the decision-making process especially in a public health setting.

Aim: We aim to compare DS in patients with and without DM admitted to a medical unit in a university hospital and to determine the predictive factors of DS in patients with DM.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted over a 6 months period from March to September 2020. It included patients admitted to the Medicine department at Tahar Sfar university hospital in Mahdia, Tunisia over that period.

Results: One hundred and Fifty patients were admitted during the study, 106 of which (70.6%) were patients with DM. Median DS was 7 [5-10] days, and was shorter in presence of DM (7 [5-8] days vs 10 [6-14] days, P=0.002). In diabetic patients, DS was not correlated to age (P=0.339) and there was no significant difference in LS according to gender (P=0.659). DS was not correlated to weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), or temperature upon admission. DS was longer in patients presenting with concomitant infection (7.5 [6-10.25] vs 7 [5-8] days, P=0.026). There was no difference in DS in patients with Type 1 DM and Type2 DM (P=0.89). The presence of complication of DM did not impact the DS (P=0.47). DS was positively correlated to White blood cells count (P=0.048, r′=0.19), Neutrophil (P=0.014, r′=0.24), PTH (P=0.002, r′=0.31), initial CRP (P<10-4, r′=0.37) and early morning cortisol (P=0.036, r′=0.2) levels. It was also negatively correlated to hemoglobin (P=0.005, r′=-0.28), HbA1c (P=0.01, r′=-0.25), measured plasma calcium (P=0.049, r′= -0.21) and albumin levels (P=0.02, r′=-0.32).

Conclusion: In our study DS was shorter in diabetic patients. These findings are opposed to previous data (1). In diabetic patients, the presence of infection and elevated inflammatory markers was positively associated to DS, while biological markers of malnutrition were negatively correlated to DS. These results suggest that such biomarkers can be used as part of an individualized decision making when admitting patients with DM.

Reference: 1. Lee MH, Liprino L, Brooks J, Cayzer B, Weedon F, Bermingham K, Jenkins AJ, Rowley K, O’Neal DN. Factors associated with duration of inpatient hospital stay for patients with diabetes mellitus admitted to a medical unit in a community public hospital. Aust J Prim Health. 2017 Apr;23(1):23-30. doi: 10.1071/PY16036. PMID: 27465014.