Abstract
BackgroundNational estimates for the occurrence of diabetes are difficult to obtain, particularly time trends in incidence. The aim was to describe time trends in prevalent and incident use of blood glucose-lowering drugs by age group and gender in Norway during 2005–2011.MethodsData were obtained from the nationwide Norwegian Prescription Database. We defined prevalent users of “insulins only” as individuals having no oral antidiabetic drugs (OAD) dispensed from a pharmacy during the previous 24 months or in the subsequent 12 months. Incident users had no blood glucose-lowering drugs dispensed in the previous 24 months; incident “insulins only” users also had no OAD in the subsequent 12 months.ResultsIn 2011, 3.2% of the population had blood glucose-lowering drugs dispensed, and the incidence rate was 313 per 100,000 person years. The prevalence of OAD use increased from 1.8% in 2005 to 2.4% in 2011; however a decreasing trend in incidence of OAD use was observed, particularly in those aged 70 years and older. In 2010, 0.64% of the population had insulins only dispensed, with an overall incidence rate in the total population of 33 per 100,000 person years which was stable over time.ConclusionsIn this nationwide study, we found that although the prevalent use of OAD had increased in recent years, incident use was stable or had decreased. This may indicate that the increase in diabetes occurrence in Norway is levelling off, at least temporarily.
Highlights
National estimates for the occurrence of diabetes are difficult to obtain, time trends in incidence
The prevalence of oral antidiabetic drugs (OAD) use increased from 1.8% in 2005 to 2.4% in 2011 and there was an increase in all age groups, with a larger increase in men than in women (Figure 3)
There was no increase in the incident use of blood glucoselowering drugs in Norway in the period 2006–2011 and there was even a decline in the incident use of OAD, in those aged 70 years and older
Summary
National estimates for the occurrence of diabetes are difficult to obtain, time trends in incidence. The aim was to describe time trends in prevalent and incident use of blood glucose-lowering drugs by age group and gender in Norway during 2005–2011. Reliable national estimates for the occurrence of diabetes are difficult to obtain, time trends in incidence. While most approaches to estimating the total number with diagnosed diabetes in a population are likely to have important sources of error, data from nationwide prescription drug databases can overcome the problems with biased participation and limited sample sizes to estimate gender- and age-specific trends. All diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes and a large majority of patients with Type 2 diabetes in most Western countries are treated with blood glucose-lowering drugs. In European children, insulin use essentially indicates a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes [6]
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