Prevalence of diabetic patients in hospital: Changing trends over a 10‐year period

The prevalence of diabetic patients was assessed in a new District General Hospital (DGH) a year after opening, and again after 10 years. The initial prevalence was 5.4%, increasing to 8.6%. Vascular disease was the most common diagnostic category for both medical and surgical patients. There were no differences in prevalence between men and women, although there was a preponderance of women especially in the medical category. Initially the patients were fairly evenly spread between the three treatment groups — diet, oral hypoglycaemic agent, insulin — but, after 10 years, the percentage of patients taking insulin had fallen to 13%. The prevalence of diabetic patients over 50 years of age was high in both studies (92.6% in the first study and 89.3% in the second study. This high prevalence of older diabetic patients in hospital is in keeping with the increased morbidity associated with the disorder, particularly vascular disease, and has significant cost implications.