Prevalence of treatment outcomes and associated factors of diabetic ketoacidosis among adult diabetic patients

Sep 30, 2026

Diabetic ketoacidosis emergencies represent serious acute complications of diabetes with rising health and economic burden among adults. In Ethiopia, evidence on treatment outcomes and their determinants remains limited, despite the growing frequency of adult DKA cases. This hospital-based retrospective cohort study evaluated the prevalence of poor outcomes and identified associated factors among 360 adult diabetic patients admitted to Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital in northwest Ethiopia.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages13

Reading Time33 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keywords

Limenih etal. European Journal European Journal of Medical Research (2026) 31:38 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-025-03593-1](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-025-03593-1 of Medical Research)[ of Medical Research](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-025-03593-1 of Medical Research) RESEARCH Open Access Prevalence of treatment outcomes and associated factors of diabetic ketoacidosis among adult diabetic patients admitted to Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital, northwest Ethiopia Fenta Limenih 1, Feriehiwot Molla2, Muluken Teshome2 and Melesse Belayneh Yayeh3* Abstract Background Diabetic ketoacidosis emergencies are serious acute complications of diabetes mellitus, and their health and economic impacts have been increasing among adult diabetic patients. Despite the growing burden of emergencies from diabetic ketoacidosis among adults with diabetes, its outcomes and factors of treatment have not been well studied in Ethiopia. Objective To assess the prevalence of poor treatment outcomes of diabetic ketoacidosis and associated factors among adult diabetic patients admitted to the Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital, northwest Ethiopia. Methods A hospital-based retrospective cohort study was conducted at Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital from April 8, 2025 to April 28, 2025. A total of 360 patients with diabetic DKA who were admitted from August 28, 2019 to September 30, 2024 participated in the study. A simple random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data were extracted using a pre-tested data collection tool adapted from different literatures. The data were entered into epi-data version 4.6.0 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression analysis were done. Statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05 with an odds ratio of 95% confidence interval. Results The prevalence of poor treatment outcomes was 15. 5%(95%, CI: 11. 5%, 19. 3%) . Factors, such as severe DKA (AOR: 1.482, 95% CI: 1. 324, 4 . 872), the presence of comorbidities (AOR: 1. 752, 95% CI: 1. 215, 3 . 865), and underlying infections (95% CI: 1. 362, 4 . 125), discontinuation of drugs (AOR: 2 . 115, 95% CI: 1. 245, 3 . 865), treatment complications (AOR: 1. 356, 95% CI: 1. 253, 4 . 125), ketone levels > 3 (AOR: 1. 213, 95% CI: 1. 052, 2 . 876), and hospital stays of less than 5 days (AOR: 1. 29, 95% CI: 1. 022, 3 . 254) were also significant factors associated with poor outcomes in patients with DKA. Conclusions This study found that a high number of patients with DKA in the Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital experienced poor treatment outcomes. Significant factors included severe DKA, comorbidities, infections, drug discontinuation, treatment complications, high ketone levels and short hospital stays. To improve *Correspondence: Melesse Belayneh Yayeh [meleseyayeh@gmail.com](meleseyayeh@gmail.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright h

FAQs

What was the study’s main objective regarding diabetic ketoacidosis?

To assess the prevalence of poor treatment outcomes of diabetic ketoacidosis and determine associated factors among adult diabetic patients admitted to Debre Markos comprehensive specialized hospital.

How was the study designed and who were the participants?

A hospital-based retrospective cohort study was conducted from April 8, 2025 to April 28, 2025, including 360 adult patients with DKA admitted between August 28, 2019 and September 30, 2024.

Which factors were significantly associated with poor treatment outcomes?

Severe DKA, comorbidities, underlying infections, discontinuation of drugs, treatment complications, ketone levels > 3, and hospital stays of less than 5 days were reported as significant factors.

Sep 30, 2026

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