Impact of nocturnal hypoglycemic events on diabetes management, sleep quality, and next-day function: results from a four-country survey

Non-severe nocturnal hypoglycemic events (NSNHEs) may have a major impact on patients. The objective was to determine how NSNHEs affect diabetes management, sleep quality, functioning, and to assess if these impacts differ by diabetes type or country.An internet survey to adults with diabetes in the US, UK, Germany, and France.Of 6756 screened respondents, 1086 reported an NSNHE in the past month. For this last event, respondents with type 2 required significantly more time than type 1 to recognize and respond to the event (1.5 vs 1.1 hours), 25.7% (T1) and 18.5% (T2) decreased their normal insulin dose due to their most recent NSNHE. All respondents were likely to take 1-2 additional self-monitored blood glucose measurements on the day following. NSNHEs were associated with a high proportion of respondents contacting a healthcare professional (18.6% T1, 27.8% T2) reporting they could not return to sleep at night (13.3% T1, 13.4% T2), and tiredness on the day following the event (71.2% for both). Of the respondents working for pay, 18.4% T1 and 28.1% T2 reported being absent from work due to the NSNHE, and a substantial proportion of respondents (8.7% T1, 14.4% T2) also reported missing a meeting or work appointment or not finishing a task on time. Compared with other countries, respondents from France may experience a more substantial impact on diabetes management and daily functioning following an NSNHE. Potential limitations in this study include recall and selection bias; however, these biases are not believed to have impacted findings in any meaningful way.NSNHEs are associated with a substantial impact on diabetes management, sleep quality, and next-day functioning.