AUTHOR=Rupprecht Mirjam , Campione Alessandro , Wu Yves Noel , Fischer-Rosinský Antje , Slagman Anna , Riedlinger Dorothee , Möckel Martin , Keil Thomas , Reitzle Lukas , Henschke Cornelia 

TITLE=Data-driven segmentation of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients: an observational study on health care utilisation prior to an emergency department visit in Germany

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1509220

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2025.1509220

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=BackgroundPotentially avoidable hospital admissions (PAHs) due to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) occur more frequently in Germany than in the rest of Europe. Emergency departments (EDs) play an important role in understanding cross-sectoral health care utilisation resulting in inpatient admissions. Segmenting T2DM patients in homogenous groups according to their health care utilisation may help to understand the population’s needs and to allocate limited resources. The aim of this study was to describe ED use and subsequent inpatient admissions among T2DM patients, and to segment the study population into homogenous subgroups based on disease stage, health care utilisation and process quality of outpatient care prior to an ED visit.MethodsThis study was conducted as part of the INDEED project, comprising data on 56,821 ED visits in 2016 attributable to 40,561 patients with T2DM from 13 German EDs, as well as statutory health insurance claims data from 2014 to 2016 retrospectively linked per patient. Descriptive analyses included patient characteristics, ED admission diagnoses and discharge diagnoses in the case of inpatient admission of T2DM patients to the ED. Latent class analysis was conducted to identify different subgroups of T2DM patients based on disease stage, number of physician contacts and medical examinations prior to the ED visit.ResultsAlmost half of the study population had severe comorbidities (44.3%). In addition to T2DM, multiple cardiovascular diagnoses were among the most frequently documented admission and discharge diagnoses. The proportion of hospitalised ED visits for T2DM patients was higher (59%) than that for the INDEED population (42.8%). We identified three latent classes that were characterised as “early disease stage and high utilisation” (36.5% of the study population), “progressing disease stage and low utilisation” (26.1%) and “progressed disease stage and high utilisation” (37.4%).ConclusionA substantial share of T2DM patients had not received disease monitoring according to guideline recommendations prior to ED presentation. Improving guideline-adherence in the outpatient sector could help reduce potentially avoidable ED visits. Effective interventions that aim at improving continuity and quality of care as well as reducing the share of PAH need to be identified and evaluated per identified class.