Glucagon prescribing and prevention of hospitalization for hypoglycemia in a large health system.

To examine glucagon prescribing trends among patients at high risk of severe hypoglycemia and assess if a glucagon prescription is associated with lower rates of severe hypoglycemia requiring hospital care. Retrospective analysis of electronic health records from a large integrated healthcare system between May 2019 and August 2021. We included adults (≥18 years) with type 1 diabetes or with type 2 diabetes treated with short-acting insulin and/or recent history of hypoglycemia-related emergency department visit or hospitalization. We calculated rates of glucagon prescribing overall and by patient characteristics. We then matched 1:1 those who were and were not prescribed glucagon and assessed subsequent hypoglycemia-related hospitalization. Of 9,200 high risk adults, 2063 (22.4%) were prescribed glucagon. Among patients more likely to be prescribed glucagon were those younger, female, White, living in urban areas, with prior severe hypoglycemia, and with a recent endocrinology specialist visit. In the matched cohort (N = 1707 per arm), 62 prescribed glucagon and 33 not prescribed glucagon were hospitalized for hypoglycemia (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.71, 95% CI 1.10-2.66; P = 0.018). Glucagon prescribing was infrequent with significant racial and rural disparities. Patients with glucagon prescriptions did not have lower rates of hospitalization for hypoglycemia.

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Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.