Korean J Dermatol.  2023 Feb;61(2):109-118.

Skin Diseases among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

• Lee JY
• Jung SW
• Jeon JJ
• Lee S
• Hong SP

Abstract

Background
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common endocrine diseases, and the relationship between diabetes and skin diseases is well-known and its mechanisms have been studied.
Objective
This study aimed to examine the association between DM and skin diseases.
Methods
We used the medical record database provided by the National Health Insurance Service. We constructed a cohort with 1,197,225 patients diagnosed with type 2 DM from 2011 to 2015. We analyzed 3,992,368 medical records of patients with DM who visited the hospital from January 1, 2009 to December 13, 2018 with skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases (ICD-10 code, L00-L99). After that, we compared the changes in skin and subcutaneous tissue diseases before and after the diagnosis of type 2 DM.
Results
The number of patients with skin diseases, after the diagnosis of type 2 DM was 1,629,756 (50.6%). The frequency of skin diseases increased after the diagnosis of type 2 DM compared to that before the diagnosis. Particularly, infectious diseases (＋29.03%,p＜0.001), vesiculobullous diseases (＋33.13%, p＜0.001) and ulcerrelated diseases (pressure sores [＋530.18%], and lower extremity ulcers [＋321.56%], p＜0.001) increased sharply whereas dermatitis and eczematous diseases (−9.96%, p＜0.001) and urticaria (−12.99%, p＜0.001) decreased.
Conclusion
Skin diseases increased following the diagnosis of diabetes, and there were changes in the pattern of skin diseases before and after the diagnosis of diabetes.

Keyword

Diabetes mellitus; Epidemiology; Skin diseases