Study design and baseline characteristics of inpatients with diabetes mellitus in a tertiary hospital in China: A database study based on electronic medical records.

AIM: To describe the characteristics of inpatients with diabetes in a tertiary hospital in China using an electronic medical record (EMR)-based database.

METHODS: We identified the medical records of all patients with diabetes from nonpediatric departments of West China Hospital, Sichuan University (from February 2009 to December 2013), and extracted information on demographic, diagnosis, discharge outcome, department of discharge, laboratory test, and prescription from the EMR system. The quality of the database was assessed by analyzing missing data and extreme data and by reviewing the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) coding.

RESULTS: Among 683,267 discharged patients, 56,784 (8.3%) patients diagnosed with diabetes were identified from all departments. Among the patients with diabetes, the average age was 63.5 ± 13.1 years and the overall death in hospital was 2.2%. Laboratory test results were highly completed in our database with no extreme or discrepant value identified. Anthropometric parameters were of a relatively low quality as 62.2% body-mass index data were missing. HbA1c levels at admission were available for 36.7% patients with diabetes. The ICD-10 coding of the diagnosis of diabetes was accurate in 88.6% records reviewed. Dyslipidemia (76.5%), hypertension (51.3%), chronic kidney disease (22.1%), and hyperuricemia (16.2%) were the most commonly presented comorbidities among inpatients with diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated a wide distribution of diabetes throughout the inpatients in a tertiary hospital in southwest China. This EMR-based database of diabetes could be potentially useful in further investigations.