Hypoglycemia is associated with an increased risk of emergency room visits, rate of hospitalizations, and lower quality of life. Recommendations given to patients with diabetes mellitus at hospital discharge provide an opportunity to improve long-term glycemic control but may increase the short-term risk of hypoglycemia.

In this retrospective study, we investigated the hypoglycemic events occurring within three months following hospitalization for common medical conditions in 693 patients with type 2 diabetes. We examined whether the recommendations for diabetes treatment given at discharge are linked with these events.

We found that patients recommended to modify their home diabetes treatment had a higher rate of hypoglycemia of any severity than those discharged without change (p=0.003). We conclude that individualized discharge treatment plans, frequent follow-ups, and continuous glucose monitoring for high-risk patients are recommended to prevent hypoglycemic events.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The Ethics committee of our Institution, Haemek Medical Center, gave ethical approval for this work

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Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors