A new CDC study estimates that 100,000 diabetics who take insulin end up in emergency departments for insulin-related hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and errors each year. Almost two-thirds of the emergency department visits involved serious neurologic signs/symptoms (such as seizure or loss of consciousness), and almost one-third resulted in hospitalization.
Older adults are especially at risk; during 2007-2011, 1 in 49 insulin-treated adults aged 65 or older visited the emergency department with insulin-related hypoglycemia. Among those over 80 years old, the number was 1 in 8, and these patients were nearly five times as likely to be subsequently hospitalized compared with insulin-treated patients who were 45-64 years of age.
The most common factors that led to these emergency department visits were related to food intake (e.g., not eating after taking a rapid-acting insulin) and insulin product-mix ups (e.g., confusion between short- and long-acting insulin).
Read the JAMA IM abstract: https://archinte.jamanetwork. com/article.aspx?articleid= 1835360
Read the JAMA IM press release: http://media.jamanetwork.com/ news-item/insulin-related- hypoglycemia-errors-related- to-emergencies- hospitalizations/
Read a preview of a JAMA IM invited commentary: https://archinte.jamanetwork. com/article.aspx?articleid= 1835356
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