Ambient Heat and Risk of Serious Hypoglycemia in Older Adults With Diabetes Using Insulin in the U.S. and Taiwan: A Cross-National Case-Crossover Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To measure the association between ambient heat and hypoglycemia-related emergency department visit or hospitalization in insulin users. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We identified cases of serious hypoglycemia among adults using insulin aged ≥65 in the U.S. (via Medicare Part A/B/D-eligible beneficiaries) and Taiwan (via National Health Insurance Database) from June to September, 2016–2019. We then estimated odds of hypoglycemia by heat index (HI) percentile categories using conditional logistic regression with a time-stratified case-crossover design. RESULTS Among ∼2 million insulin users in the U.S. (32,461 hypoglycemia case subjects), odds ratios of hypoglycemia for HI >99th, 95–98th, 85–94th, and 75–84th percentiles compared with the 25–74th percentile were 1.38 (95% CI, 1.28–1.48), 1.14 (1.08–1.20), 1.12 (1.08–1.17), and 1.09 (1.04–1.13) respectively. Overall patterns of associations were similar for insulin users in the Taiwan sample (∼283,000 insulin users, 10,162 hypoglycemia case subjects). CONCLUSIONS In two national samples of older insulin users, higher ambient temperature was associated with increased hypoglycemia risk.