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Table 2 Patient perspectives on hypoglycemia

From: An international survey on hypoglycemia among insulin-treated type I and type II diabetes patients: Turkey cohort of the non-interventional IO HAT study

 

T1DM

T2DM

Impact of hypoglycemic events on the medical system (%)

Retrospective

(n = 306)

Prospective

(n = 253)

Retrospective

(n = 2042)

Prospective

(n = 1796)

Events requiring hospital admission

10.2

3.3

6.1

1.9

Attended additional clinical appointments

15.8

12.6

11.4

8.0

Made additional telephone contacts

6.3

5.3

4.1

3.3

Patient response to hypoglycemia (%)

Retrospective

(n = 306)

Prospective

(n = 252)

Retrospective

(n = 2042)

Prospective

(n = 1781)

Consulted their doctor/nurse

47.4

32.9

39.3

32.6

Required any form of medical assistance

48.7

33.3

41.0

32.6

Increased calorie intake

35.3

28.6

27.6

17.6

Avoided physical exercise

17.6

13.1

11.3

9.2

Reduced insulin dose

35.0

18.7

18.8

13.0

Skipped insulin injections

23.9

10.3

18.0

9.8

Increased blood glucose monitoring

52.3

46.4

28.9

20.9

Impact of hypoglycemic events on work and study (%)

Retrospective

(n = 200)

Prospective

(n = 166)

Retrospective

(n = 360)

Prospective

(n = 321)

Taken leave from work or studies

22.0

6.6

10.8

3.1

Arrived late to work/studies

24.5

9

6.4

2.5

Left early from work/studies

20.5

11.4

10.8

2.5

 

T1DM (N = 306)

T2DM (N = 2042)

Knew what hypoglycemia was at baseline before Part 1 SAQ (%)

 

91.3

60.4

Defined hypoglycemia based on (%)

Symptoms only

54.6

52.4

Blood glucose measurement only

2.3

3.5

Either

15.4

15.2

Both

24.2

18.8

Hypoglycemia awareness (%)

Normal

71.6

53.3

Impaired

25.2

38.5

Severely impaired

0.7

2.8

Fear of hypoglycemia (Scale of 0 to 10; %)

0 = no fear

19.9

24.3

1

3.9

5.9

2

2.3

5.8

3

5.6

5.4

4

5.6

4.6

5

13.1

10.7

6

6.5

6.6

7

9.8

9.9

8

10.1

8.7

9

5.2

4.6

10 = absolutely terrified

17.3

12.2

  1. Hypoglycemia unawareness was evaluated through the question: ‘Do you have symptoms when you have a low sugar level?’ where the response, ‘occasionally’ denoted impaired awareness and ‘never’ denoted severely impaired awareness
  2. N = total number of patients participating; n = number of patients who responded to the set of questions; SAQ = self-assessment questionnaire; T1DM = type I diabetes mellitus; T2DM = type II diabetes mellitus