Open AccessPrevalence and comorbidities of known diabetes in northeastern I taly
Author(s) -
Valent Francesca,
Tillati Silvia,
Zanier Loris
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of diabetes investigation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.089
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 2040-1124
pISSN - 2040-1116
DOI - 10.1111/jdi.12043
Subject(s) - medicine , diabetes mellitus , medical diagnosis , confidence interval , comorbidity , disease , neglect , pediatrics , psychiatry , pathology , endocrinology
Aims/Introduction We aimed at estimating the prevalence and at identifying the frequent comorbidities of diabetes mellitus in a region of northeastern I taly from administrative health data. Materials and Methods The prevalence was estimated according to two disease definitions, based on administrative health data. Association rule mining was used to detect comorbid diagnoses that coexisted with a diagnosis of diabetes among patients admitted to the regional hospitals. Results The prevalence of known diabetes in 2010 was 6.0–8.1%, with great variations by age class (from approximately 2% <60 years to more than 20% in some elderly age groups). Of 155,494 patients admitted to the hospital in 2011, 9,358 had a diagnosis of diabetes. A total of 12 rules satisfied our criteria for support (>0.5%) and confidence (>5%), and identified nine frequent isolated comorbidities and three pairs of comorbid diagnoses. The rule with the highest support (2.4%) and confidence (39.5%) identified the combination of diabetes and essential hypertension. Conclusions Association rule mining was useful, because it showed the complexity of diabetic patients. Clinical management of those patients cannot neglect comorbidities.