Trends in Diabetic Ketoacidosis Hospitalizations and In-Hospital Mortality — United States, 2000–2014

Diabetes is a common chronic condition and as of 2015, approximately 30 million persons in the United States had diabetes (23 million with diagnosed and 7 million with undiagnosed) (1). Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening but preventable complication of diabetes characterized by uncontrolled hyperglycemia (>250 mg/dL), metabolic acidosis, and increased ketone concentration that occurs most frequently in persons with type 1 diabetes (2). CDC's United States Diabetes Surveillance System* (USDSS) indicated an increase in hospitalization rates for DKA during 2009-2014, most notably in persons aged <45 years. To explore this finding, 2000-2014 data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Inpatient Sample (NIS)† were assembled to calculate trends in DKA hospitalization rates and in-hospital case-fatality rates. Overall, age-adjusted DKA hospitalization rates decreased slightly from 2000 to 2009, then reversed direction, steadily increasing from 2009 to 2014 at an average annual rate of 6.3%. In-hospital case-fatality rates declined consistently during the study period from 1.1% to 0.4%. Better understanding the causes of this increasing trend in DKA hospitalizations and decreasing trend in in-hospital case-fatality through further exploration using multiple data sources will facilitate the targeting of prevention efforts.