Hypoglycemia Close to Discharge Is Associated with Worse Outcomes

Inpatient hypoglycemia worsens outcomes among patients with and without diabetes; however, little is known about the implications of low blood glucose levels during the last 24 hours of hospitalization. To evaluate whether hypoglycemia near the end of a hospitalization predicts subsequent adverse outcomes, researchers performed a retrospective cohort study of >800,000 diabetic U.S. Veterans Affairs patients.

Compared with patients whose blood glucose was 100 mg/dL to 109 mg/dL on the day before discharge (the referent category), patients with hypoglycemia (blood glucose, <70 mg/dL) in the 24 hours prior to discharge (9.1% of admissions) had significantly higher adjusted 30-day readmissions (13.7% vs. 18.5%; adjusted relative risk, 1.2), 30-d…