Comparing diabetes due to diseases of the exocrine pancreas to type 1 and type 2 diabetes using propensity score matching

Abstract Objective To estimate the prevalence of diabetes due to diseases of the exocrine pancreas (DEP) using data of the multicentre diabetes patient follow-up registry. Moreover, we aimed at comparing individuals with diabetes due to DEP to individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Methods Individuals with DEP, type 1 or type 2 diabetes ≥18 years of age were studied. We aggregated the most recent treatment year per patient and used propensity scores to match diabetes due to DEP to type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Matching was conducted one-to-one with sex, age, diabetes duration, migration background and the German index of socioeconomic deprivation as covariates. Results We identified 7,093 (1.6%) individuals with diabetes due to DEP. In the matched cohort DEP-type 1 diabetes we observed a similar daily insulin dose (0.62 IU/kg (95% confidence interval:0.60–0.63), 0.60 IU/kg (0.58–0.62)) and significant differences regarding microvascular (41.0% (39.7–42.2), 45.3% (44.0–46.6)), and macrovascular disease (16.6% (15.7–17.6), 14.7% (13.8–15.6)). HbA1c (8.2% (8.1–8.3), 7.9% (7.8–8.0)), daily insulin dose (0.60 IU/kg (0.58–0.62), 0.56 IU/kg (0.54–0.58)) and event rates of severe hypoglycemia (23.9 events/100 PY (21.4–26.8), (9.5 events/100 PY (8.0–11.2)) were significantly higher in individuals with diabetes due to DEP compared to type 2 diabetes. Conclusions Using registry data, rare diabetes types such as diabetes due to DEP can be studied with a significant sample size. Our study identified differences and similarities between adult individuals with DEP related diabetes and type 1 or type 2 diabetes.