Diabetes is a common comorbid condition among sudden death victims, and mental health is often tied to diabetes disease control, according to a study published in Southern Medical Journal.
To examine sudden death, researchers screened out-of-hospital deaths in patients aged 18 to 64 years in 2013 to 2015 and analyzed demographics and clinical characteristics from health records. Mental illness in this study included anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression. Poorly controlled diabetes, the researchers noted, was defined as a hemoglobin A1c >8 or taking ≥3 medications for glycemic control.
According to the results, mental illness was present in 53.42% and 63.89% of victims with mild and poorly controlled diabetes, respectively. Also, the results showed that mental illness was linked with diabetes (odds ratio [OR], 2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57-3.91). The researchers noted that victims with poorly controlled diabetes were more likely to have mental illness (OR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.14-6.18).
“Early management of comorbid mental illnesses may improve the care of patients with diabetes and reduce the incidence of sudden death,” the researchers concluded.
Keywords: diabetes mellitus, sudden death, mental illness
