Pattern of outpatient drug therapy in diabetics admitted to hospital: preliminary results

The prevalence of outpatient treatment with various drug groups is significantly higher in diabetics than in non-diabetic control patients. In addition to the specific diabetes-related prescriptions, diabetics were more frequently treated with drugs acting on the alimentary tract or used in metabolic disorders (ATC code A), drugs used in disorders of the blood and blood-forming organs (ATC B), cardiovascular system (ATC C), mus-culo-skeletal system (ATC M) and nervous system (ATC N) - resulting in markedly higher outpatient costs in this patient group. Objective of this investigation was to analyze the pre-hospital prescription pattern of diabetics and non-diabetic controls at the time of admission to hospital. Method: A sample survey of a total of 189 general medical and 68 surgical admissions involving diabetics and 676 and 143 non-diabetic control patients -corresponding in age, sex and main diagnosis - were analyzed with regard to selected medical and demographic characteristics and pharmacotherapy. Results and discussion: The prevalence of non-diabetic drug treatment in diabetics was highest for ATC C (87.8% and 69.1%), ATC A (40.7% and 27.9%; without A10) and ATC B (39.2% and 29.4%) in internal and surgical admissions, respectively. A substantially higher prevalence was found for ATC groups B and C in diabetics and controls admitted to medical wards than in epidemiological prescription analyses. Conclusion: Data indicate that the need for treatment with cardiovascular drugs and drugs used to treat disorders of the blood and blood-forming organs may be associated with a higher risk ofhospitalization in general medical wards.