An Update on the Incidence and Burden of Diabetic Ketoacidosis in the U.S.
Kamleshun Ramphul, Jyotsnav Joynauth
Abstract
A recent study by Desai et al. (1) showed that the incidence and economic burden of hospitalizations due to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in the U.S. increased between 2003 and 2014 (1). We sought to understand the most recent impact of the disease in the U.S. using the 2017 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) (www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/nisoverview.jsp). A total of 220,340 patients were identified with a primary diagnosis of DKA (61.6 cases of DKA per 10,000 admissions) (Table 1). The incidence of DKA per 10,000 admissions was higher in males (71.2) than females (54.1), and the majority of DKA patients were covered by Medicaid (79,175 patients [36.0%], P < 0.01). Of all DKA patients, 53.3% were of ages 18–44 years. However, a higher incidence per 10,000 admissions was noted in patients of ages 1–17 years. The mean age of patients with DKA was 38.4 years. The total charges among DKA patients in 2017 were $6,757,748,178, with a mean of $30,836.19. The mean length of stay was 3.22 days. A total of 835 deaths were found among DKA patients, with a mortality rate of 0.38%. The overall …