Increase in Prevalence of Diabetic Ketoacidosis at Diagnosis Among Youth With Type 1 Diabetes: The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study

OBJECTIVE: We previously reported a high (˜30%) but stable prevalence of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at youth-onset diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (2002 and 2010). Given the changing demographics of youth-onset type 1 diabetes, we sought to evaluate temporal trends in the prevalence of DKA at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes from 2010 to 2016 among youth <20 years of age and evaluate whether any change observed was associated with changes in sociodemographic distribution of those recently diagnosed. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We calculated prevalence of DKA within 1 month of type 1 diabetes diagnosis by year and evaluated trends over time (2010–2016) (n = 7,612 incident diabetes cases; mean [SD] age 10.1 [4.5] at diagnosis). To assess whether trends observed were attributable to the changing distribution of sociodemographic factors among youth with incident type 1 diabetes, we estimated an adjusted relative risk (RR) of DKA in relation to calendar year, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education, health insurance status, language, season of diagnosis, and SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study site. RESULTS: DKA prevalence increased from 35.3% (95% CI 32.2, 38.4) in 2010 to 40.6% (95% CI 37.8, 43.4) in 2016 (P(trend) = 0.01). Adjustment for sociodemographic factors did not substantively change the observed trends. We observed a 2% annual increase in prevalence of DKA at or near diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (crude RR 1.02 [95% CI 1.01, 1.04] and adjusted RR 1.02 [95% CI 1.01, 1.04]; P = 0.01 for both). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of DKA at or near type 1 diabetes diagnosis has increased from 2010 to 2016, following the high but stable prevalence observed from 2002 to 2010. This increase does not seem to be attributable to the changes in distribution of sociodemographic factors over time.