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Hospitalization rates increased for patients with HCV, diabetes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The number of patients hospitalized and coinfected with hepatitis C virus infection and diabetes in Spain increased during a 14-year period, according to data presented at ICAAC 2014.

Researchers performed an epidemiologic study based on a retrospective survey of data from the National Spanish System for Hospital Data between 1997 and 2010 to determine the number of people hospitalized with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and diabetes. Researchers used ICD-9 coding to identify patients with HCV and diabetes.

Data included 637,640 patients hospitalized with HCV, a rate that increased with age, the researchers wrote. The rate peaked with patients aged 75 to 79 years, with 63.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 people. Twelve percent of all patients hospitalized had diabetes (n=73,840; including 71,095 with type 2 diabetes). The annual incidence rate for hospitalizations was 0.46 per 100,000 patients with type 1 diabetes and 11.8 per 100,000 for type 2 diabetes.

Among patients with diabetes, the average hospital stay was 10 days, regardless of disease type, 19% were readmitted. Overall, 5, 904 deaths occurred, and the mortality rate was greater in patients coinfected with HCV and type 2 diabetes (8.2%) compared with HCV patients coinfected with type 1 diabetes (7%).

“The development of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines directed toward the control of glycemia and the reduction of insulin resistance in HCV-positive patients may help to reduce the hospital burden of the disease,” the researchers wrote.

For more information:

Rojo-Avial M. Abstract V-481. Presented at: Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; Sept. 5-9, 2014; Washington, D.C.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.