An international survey on hypoglycemia among insulin-treated type I and type II diabetes patients: Turkey cohort of the non-interventional IO HAT study

BACKGROUND: Limited real-world data are currently available on hypoglycemia in diabetes patients. The International Operations Hypoglycemia Assessment Tool (IO HAT) study was designed to estimate hypoglycemia in insulin-treated type I (T1DM) and type II (T2DM) diabetes mellitus patients from 9 countries. The data from Turkey cohort are presented here. METHODS: A non-interventional study to determine the hypoglycemia incidence, retrospectively and prospectively, in Turkish T1DM and T2DM patients using a 2-part self-assessment questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall, 2348 patients were enrolled in the Turkey cohort (T1DM = 306 patients, T2DM = 2042 patients). In T1DM patients, 96.8% patients reported hypoglycemic events (Incidence rate [IR]: 68.6 events per patient-year [ppy]), prospectively, while 74.0% patients reported hypoglycemic events (IR: 51.7 events ppy), retrospectively. In T2DM patients, 95.9% patients (IR: 28.3 events ppy) reported hypoglycemic events, prospectively, while 53.6% patients (IR: 23.0 events ppy) reported hypoglycemic events, retrospectively. Nearly all patients reported hypoglycemia during the prospective period. CONCLUSIONS: This is a first patient-reported dataset on hypoglycemia in Turkish, insulin-treated diabetes patients. A high incidence of patient-reported hypoglycemia confirms that hypoglycemia remains under-estimated. Hypoglycemia increased healthcare utilization impacting patients’ quality of life. Hypoglycemia remains a common side effect with insulin-treatment and strategies to optimize therapy and reduce hypoglycemia occurrence in diabetes patients are required. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02306681 (Date of registration: 12 Nov 2014; retrospectively registered). ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12902-018-0238-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.