AUTHOR=Alsharif Alaa A. , Wong Ian C. K. , Ma Tian , Lau Wallis , Alhamed Meshari , Alwafi Hassan , Wei Li 

TITLE=The association between dementia and the risk of hypoglycaemia events among patients with diabetes mellitus: a propensity-score matched cohort analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2023.1177636

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2023.1177636

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Background
Hypoglycaemia commonly occurs in patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) and dementia. The impact of dementia on hypoglycaemic events is controversial. Thus, we evaluated whether dementia increases the risk of hypoglycaemic events in older patients diagnosed with DM.
Design 
A retrospective cohort study. 
Setting 
We used the IQVIA Medical Research Data (IMRD-UK) database (formerly known as THIN database).
 Participants 
All patients aged ≥ 55 years and diagnosed with DM who were prescribed with at least two prescriptions of antidiabetic medication between 2000-2017. Two groups of patients, dementia and non-dementia group, were propensity-score (PS) matched at 1:2. The risk of hypoglycaemia was assessed through a Cox regression analysis.
Main outcome and measures
Hypoglycaemic events were determined during the follow-up period by Read codes. 
Results
133,664 diabetic patients were identified from the database with a mean follow-up of 6.11 years. 7,762 diabetic patients diagnosed with dementia were matched with 12,944 diabetic patients who had not been diagnosed with dementia during the study period.
The PS matched Cox regression analysis showed that patients diagnosed with dementia were at a 2-fold increased risk for hypoglycaemic events compared with those not diagnosed with dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 2.00; 95% CI,1.63 -2.66). A similar result was shown for a multivariable analysis using all patient’s data (adjusted HR, 2.25; 95% CI, 2.22 -2.32).
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that diabetic patients with a diagnosis of dementia have a statistically significant higher risk of experiencing hypoglycaemia.