Greater concern about hypoglycemia in Type 2 diabetics is the need of the hour—findings from a prospective, single-center, observational study

CONTEXT: Hypoglycemia is a well-recognized adverse effect in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus. For patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on stabilized treatment with the current oral antidiabetic drugs, occurrence of hypoglycemia is considerably less well studied. The current study was undertaken to understand the extent of this problem in elderly Indian patients. OBJECTIVES: PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Assessment of incidence of hypoglycemia in patients of T2DM on stable treatment. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: 1. Estimation of incidence of episodes of severe hypoglycemia in patients. 2. Correlation of presence of hypoglycemia with treatment modality. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was conducted as an open label, single-center observational study at a multispecialty tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study participants consisted of 50 elderly confirmed patients of either gender suffering from T2DM undergoing treatment and follow-up in the hospital for at least 12 weeks. After a brief training session and enrolment, the patients were asked to report to study site every month for next 2 months. Parameters recorded were plasma glucose levels, HbA1c levels, treatment regimen, body mass index, possible hypoglycemic episode based on symptoms and self-monitoring of blood glucose, and quality of life based on questionnaire score. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive and other statistics were used to analyze the hypoglycemic episodes experienced by the patients for correlation with medicines and the effect of hypoglycemia on their quality of life. RESULTS: Total of nine hypoglycemic episodes were recorded. Severe hypoglycemia did not occur in any patient. Patient on insulin reported significantly more hypoglycemia. Quality of life is not much different in patients using insulin in T2DM.