People with diabetes admitted to hospital with hypoglycaemia
Other names
Indicator #11
Description
This indicator shows the number and percent of people with diabetes who are admitted to hospital with hypoglycaemia as the primary diagnosis one or more times in the relevant year.
Rationale
Understanding the factors contributing to variations in hypoglycaemia prevalence is essential for tailoring diabetes care, promoting patient education, and implementing proactive measures to prevent this potentially life-threatening condition.
Data is not presented where the number of people in the numerator was less than 10. This is to preserve confidentiality.
People were assigned to their Health New Zealand ‒ Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) district of domicile; where more than one domicile was recorded, the most recent value was selected.
Ethnicity data presented is prioritised ethnic group (Māori, Pacific peoples, Indian and European/other). Prioritised ethnic groups involve each participant being assigned to a single ethnic group, based on the ethnicities they have identified with, in the prioritised order of Māori, Pacific peoples, Indian and European/other. The European/other ethnic group includes persons of the following ethnicities: European (including New Zealand European), MELAA (Middle Eastern, Latin American and African), other Asian and Other. Where people report different ethnic groups at different timepoints, the most recent value is selected.
Rates are not age standardised; this means our prevalence rates are different to those on the Health New Zealand diabetes dashboard (https://tewhatuora.shinyapps.io/virtual-diabetes-register-web-tool/).
For all indicators, individuals with missing values for any of the variables of interest (age, gender, ethnicity and district) are excluded completely. For instance, if there are any missing values for age, they are excluded from all analyses. This approach ensures a consistent denominator throughout the analyses.
Since we aggregate data for the numerator and denominator separately for Indicator #1, we use demographic information from the Virtual Diabetes Register (VDR) for the numerator and from the Primary Health Organisation (PHO) Enrolment Collection for the denominator. For Indicators #2‒12, demographic information is taken from the VDR. For Indicator #13, demographic information is from the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS).
For PHO analyses, we analysed Indicator #1 to determine the size of diabetic population each PHO serves. Then we categorised them into small (< 3,000), medium (3,000‒5,000), medium‒large (5,000‒10,000) and large (> 10,000).
Measure type
Count
Percent
Numerator
People with diabetes admitted to hospital with a primary diagnosis of hypoglycaemia
This indicator does not include people who were treated in the emergency department. While the decision to admit depends on the severity and cause, different hospitals may have different admission policies, which may lead to variation in rates. It is recommended that Health New Zealand districts analyse their ED attendances.
