Factors that influence the hospital stay of patients diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus

Introduction: diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia, due to defects in insulin secretion or insulin action, or a combination of both, with great impact worldwide. Patients with diabetes mellitus are hospitalized 2.4 times more often than other patients. Objective: to identify epidemiological factors associated with the hospital stay of diabetic patients at the "Dr. Agostinho Neto" General Teaching Hospital between January and December 2021. Methods: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out at the "Dr. Agostinho Neto" General Teaching Hospital from January to December 2021. In the statistical analysis, the variables age, sex, toxic habits, body mass index, physical activity, type of diabetes, glycemia figure at admission and comorbidities were extracted through the SPSS 23.0 statistical package. Descriptive indicators were obtained, as well as totals and percentages. Results: patients over 60 years of age (49,1 %), male (53,1 %), with type 2 diabetes mellitus (66,8 %), sedentary (76,4 %) and obese (42 %) predominated. The comorbidity with the highest incidence was dyslipidemia (27,9 %) and alcoholism (52 %). No association/risk was found between these variables and hospital stay. Conclusions: among diabetic patients, those with older age as well as type 2 diabetes mellitus were more prone to prolonged hospital stay.