Hospital care for diabetes

All diabetes hospitalisations

There were about 1.2 million hospitalisations associated with diabetes in 2017–18, with 5% recorded as the principal diagnosis (the diagnosis largely responsible for hospitalisation) and 95% recorded as an additional diagnosis (a coexisting condition with the principal diagnosis or a condition arising during hospitalisation that affects patient management), according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Hospital Morbidity Database. This represents 11% of all hospitalisations in Australia.

Note that hospitalisation data presented here are based on admitted patient episodes of care, including multiple events experienced by the same individual.

In 2017–18 there were around:

  • 53,900 hospitalisations with diabetes as the principal diagnosis. Of these hospitalisations, 29% were due to type 1 diabetes, 64% were due to type 2 diabetes, 5% were due to gestational diabetes and 1% were due to diabetes ‘other or unspecified’.
  • 1,149,000 hospitalisations with diabetes as an additional diagnosis. Of these hospitalisations, 4% were due to type 1 diabetes, 90% were due to type 2 diabetes, 5% were due to gestational diabetes and 1% were due to diabetes ‘other or unspecified’ (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Hospitalisations by diabetes diagnosis type, 2017–18

The chart shows the majority of hospitalisations with diabetes as the principal diagnosis in 2017–18 were for type 2 diabetes (64%) followed by type 1 diabetes (29%), gestational diabetes (5%) and other or unspecified diabetes (1%). 90% of hospitalisations with diabetes as an additional diagnosis type were for type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes represented 4% and 5% of these hospitalisations, respectively, with other or unspecified representing 1%.

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