A study published in Journal of Women’s Health shows a rapid increase in the number of hospitalizations due to diabetes for young adults — particularly young women.
Diabetes hospitalizations are up by 66 percent for all ages and sexes, but the number of diabetes hospitalizations among younger adults ages 30-39 more than doubled from 1993-2006.
This pattern of hospitalizations echoes the dramatic increase in rates of obesity across the United States in the last 30 years, according to the study by the U-M Health System.
Young women were 1.3 times more likely to be hospitalized than young men, and the authors believe this may be due to higher rates of obesity for women vs. men in this age group.
Another possibility, researchers say, is that women with diabetes may be sicker than their male counterparts, which could be related to the medical care they receive. For example, younger women with diabetes are less likely to receive preventive care for their diabetes.
“Our findings suggest that further attention must be paid to the young adult population,” says study author Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist and researcher for the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“We need more diabetes prevention interventions targeting the young adult population, and women in particular, to prevent further increases in diabetes,” she says. “In addition, we need more medical care interventions to improve the overall health of young adults with diabetes.”
The findings by the team of diabetes, public health and women’s health experts reveal a serious shift in the burden of diabetes and predict a heavy future financial toll.
Adjusting for inflation, hospital charges for diabetes in 2006 tallied $200.1 billion compared with $62.5 billion in 1993.
“As rates of diabetes continue to increase, particularly among young adults, the future economic burden on Medicare will only escalate as people age,” Lee says.
Pregnancy is a well-known trigger for diabetes in women, but the new study shows it was not the biggest culprit.
Rather researchers believe the higher rates of hospitalizations among young women, ages 20-39, compared to men were potentially due to increases in diabetes prevalence related to the higher national rates of obesity for women vs. men in this age group.
Another possibility is that the greater rate of hospitalizations among women compared to men is due to increased morbidity among women.
Previous studies have shown that women with diabetes use less preventative care, are less likely to receive aggressive medical management and experience worse outcomes after hospitalization for cardiovascular problems.
Additional U-M authors are Dr. Matthew M. Davis, associate professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and internal medicine at the Medical School and associate professor of public policy at the Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy; Acham Gebremariam, CHEAR Unit; and Dr. Catherine Kim, assistant professor of internal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology.
