Undiagnosed Diabetes Is Common Among Patients With Pneumonia
Among patients with community-acquired pneumonia, men and individuals who are overweight or have hyperglycemia have a higher risk of undiagnosed diabetes, according to a recent study.
Although diabetes is a known risk factor for community-acquired pneumonia, less is currently known about the incidence of undiagnosed diabetes in patients who develop the infection.
____________________________________________________________________________
RELATED CONTENT
Pearls of Wisdom: Dietary Interventions for Diabetes
Simple Blood Test May Identify CVD in Diabetes Patients
____________________________________________________________________________
To explore this further, the researchers evaluated 1961 adults with community-acquired pneumonia across various hospitals and private practices in Germany and Austria. All participants had also been included in the German Community-Acquired Pneumonia Competence Network (CAPNETZ) study from 2007 to 2014.
Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurements were used to estimate the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes. Risk factors for undiagnosed diabetes were investigated via logistic regression. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals were also calculated.
Results showed that 15% of patients had known diabetes, of whom 5.0% had undiagnosed diabetes and 37.5% had prediabetes. Factors that were associated with undiagnosed diabetes included male sex (OR 2.45), body mass index of at least 25 kg/m2 (OR 2.64), and hyperglycemia at baseline (OR 2.93 for 6 to 11 mM; OR 44.76 for at least 11 mM).
The researchers noted that undiagnosed diabetes was associated with a higher risk of 180-day mortality compared with no diabetes.
“Undiagnosed diabetes mellitus was prevalent among community-acquired pneumonia,” the researchers concluded. “Male sex, overweight, and hyperglycemia at admission were associated with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus. The long-term mortality among patients with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus was high compared [with] patients without diabetes mellitus.”
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Jensen AV, Faurholt-Jepsen D, Egelund GB, et al; German Community-Acquired Pneumonia Competence Network (CAPNETZ). Undiagnosed diabetes mellitus in community-acquired pneumonia: a prospective cohort study. Clin Infect Dis. 2017;65(12):2091-2098. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix703.