Diabetes management patterns in a palliative care unit in Saudi Arabia

Background: The terminally ill diabetic inpatients who had blood glucose monitoring continued until the day of death ranged from 32% to 76% according to previous studies. Researches regarding the management of diabetes in palliative care services in Saudi Arabia are insufficient, although it is of high prevalence. Balancing the goals of avoiding symptoms of hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia as well as minimising the burden of blood glucose monitoring and treatment have become a struggle to palliative care physicians due to limited evidence-based resources. This intensifies the complexity of managing diabetes during a terminal illness. Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the management of diabetes among patients who were admitted to hospital-based palliative care unit (PCU) at King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective chart review, cohort study for all PCU inpatients was done. The study was conducted on the charts of 12 months from January to December 2013. Measures included diabetes prevalence, monitoring of blood glucose by laboratory and/or bedside testing and diabetes treatment with the use of oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin. Prevalence of diabetes associated comorbidities, hypertension and dyslipedemia were also measured along with their treatment. A descriptive analysis of collected data was carried out. Results: Eighteen adult diabetic patients (15.25%) out of the whole 118 patients admitted to PCU over the 12 months' study period were reported. Ten (55.6%) were males, and 8 (44.4%) were females, with a mean age of 59.26 years. Blood glucose monitoring in the diabetic patients was done for ten patients; bedside glucometer utilized for 9 patients (50%), glucometer + serum glucose measurement done in one patient (5.6%), and no glucose monitoring was done in eight patients (44.4%). The majority of the patients 11/18 (61%) stayed at the hospital until death while 7/18 (39%) did well and were discharged. The monitoring of blood sugar was continued for six patients until the last week of life. Blood glucose management dropped to 33% at the end of life. Initially, half of the patients (50%) had their blood glucose managed with hypoglycaemic medications with or without insulin. This dropped during the last week of life to 33%. In the comorbidity group, 72% were using antihypertensive or lipid lowering agents, as a result of which it dropped to 50% during the last week of life. Conclusion: Diabetes management varied among PCU patients. There is a real need for evidence-based guidelines for diabetes management among patients at the end of life. These guidelines should be tailored to patients' individual preferences in goals of care. Advance care planning should include discussion about patient preferences for management of diabetes at the end of life.