Diabetes mellitus and comorbidities – A cross-sectional study with control group based on nationwide ambulatory claims data

As a condition, diabetes mellitus is associated with risk factors and diseases such as obesity. At the same time, cardiovascular diseases are a frequent consequence of diabetes. There have yet to be any findings on the Germany-wide prevalence of diabetes and diabetes comorbidities based on statutory health insurance data. This study estimates the documented prevalence of diabetes in 2019 on the basis of all ambulatory physicians’ claims data of German statutory health insurance. In addition, the prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and depression is calculated for diabetes and non-diabetes patients, and the prevalence ratio (PR) is determined as a quotient. The approach used was a case-control design, which assigns a control person without diabetes to each diabetes patient who is similar in terms of age, region and sex. In diabetes patients, a PR greater than 1 was observed for all examined diseases across all age groups, thus demonstrating a higher prevalence compared to persons without diabetes. The highest PR across all age groups for women (3.8) and men (3.7) was found for obesity. In a comparison over time, documented prevalence figures of diabetes in Germany stagnate. With the exception of depression, the documented prevalences of comorbidities correspond well with the prevalences found in population-wide examination surveys.