OBJECTIVES

: This study examines the changes in diabetes-associated emergency departments (EDs) visit rates that occurred from 2011 through 2015 in Saudi Arabia (S.A.) population.

METHODS

: Publicly available ED visit data from the Health statistics annual books published by the Saudi Ministry of Health from 2011 through 2015 were used to extract ED visits related to Diabetes. We computed the visit patterns by gender. we present ED visit rates for the first and last years of the observation period and show the rate difference (RD) between the 2 years with 95% CIs for the RD. Trend tests using linear regression models were performed to assess the significance of changes in ED visit rates over the observation period.

RESULTS

: After adjusting for the annual prevalence of diabetes in S.A., total annual visits to the ED for management of diabetes increased from 617,683 cases in 2011 to 748,605 in 2015 (rate difference, 7.4 per 10,000 visits; 95% CI, -14.8 to 21.9; P=.02 for trend). Female with diabetes accounted for most of the increase in ED visits; the visit rate increased from 240.5 to 249.8 visits per 10,000 visits between 2011 and 2015 (rate difference, 9.6; 95% CI, -16.4 to 26.6; P=.01 for trend).

CONCLUSIONS

: These findings indicate that ED visit rates among diabetic patients have increased from 2011 to 2015 after adjusting for the diabetes annual prevalence in S.A.. Women who suffer from diabetes showed significant annual increases in ED visits rate compared with men. Future research should seek to identify the factors contributing to this observation.