Hospitalization Pattern and Treatment Outcome Among Diabetic Patients Admitted to a Teaching Hospital in Ethiopia: A Prospective Observational Study

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is associated with frequent hospitalization and high morbidity, mortality and health care expenditure. However, there is scarcity of data on hospitalization pattern and treatment outcome among diabetic patients in Ethiopia.  Objective: to assess reasons for hospitalization, treatment outcome and its predictors among diabetic patients admitted at a teaching hospital in Ethiopia Method: A hospital based prospective observational study was conducted at medical and surgical wards of Jimma University Specialized Hospital from March to June, 2015. All adult patients with the diagnosis of diabetes who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Data was collected using pretested abstracting format. Logistic regression was employed for statistical analysis and statistical significance was considered at p value<0.05. Result: A total of 89 patients were included in the analysis; 59.6% were male, with the mean age 46.9±15.5 years. Type 2 diabetic patients accounted for 74.2%. One third (33.7%) of patients were hospitalized with diabetic ketoacidosis. Other common reasons for hospitalization were infections (19.1%) and cardiovascular diseases (18.0%). Median duration of hospital stay was 9 days ranged from 1 to 88 days. Seventy  six  percent  of  patients  were  discharged  with  improvement  and hospital  mortality  rate was 11.2%.  Patients admitted due to diabetic complications had favorable treatment outcome (AOR=5.7, 95%CI: 1.4-22.9).Conclusion: This study identified that the most common reasons for hospitalization of diabetic patients were diabetic complications, infections and cardiovascular diseases. Despite majority of patients discharged with improvement, mortality rate is still high which urges attention to the care of hospitalized diabetic patients and the need to enhance outpatient care of diabetic patients to minimize hospitalization due to preventable causes.

Keywords: reasons for hospitalization, diabetic patients, treatment outcome, Jimma University