Comparative analysis of cardio-cerebrovascular complications in immigrants and native-born Koreans with diabetes: Risk factors and perspectives

Background: Given the rapidly increasing number of immigrants, it is crucial to address health care issues involving immigrants to facilitate their safe and secure settlement. Especially for common chronic diseases, such as diabetes, immigrants face more complex obstacles to manage their chronic conditions than do native-born residents. Therefore, we aimed to assess differences in the incidence and associated risk factors of cardio-cerebrovascular (CCV) complications of immigrants compared with native-born Koreans with diabetes. Methods: Immigrants and native-born Koreans who had new diagnosis of diabetes and simultaneously received anti-diabetic prescriptions in 2012 were defined by using Korean National Health Insurance Claim Database(KNHICD). CCV complications were assessed at a 3-year follow-up from the index date. We assessed differences in the CCV complications and risk factors using multiple cox regression models. Results: In total, 4,008 patients (668 of immigrants and 3,340 of native-born Koreans) who had newly diagnosed diabetes and simultaneously received anti-diabetic prescriptions in 2012 were selected. Immigrants with diabetes were at a 1.39 times higher risk of having CCV complications than native-born Koreans with diabetes (95% CI: 1.021–1.881). Patients who had a usual sources of care (USC) presented a significantly reduced risk of cardio-cerebrovascular complication (HR: 0.452; 95% CI: 0.342–0.598) in both immigrants and native Koreans. In subgroup analysis in immigrants, patients having USC showed decreased risk of CCV incidence (HR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.175–0.703), whereas >60 years old and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score >1 presented increased risk of CCV complications. Conclusion: Immigrants with diabetes have a higher risk of CCV complications than native-born Koreans with diabetes. However, having a USC significantly decreased the risk of CCV complications. Therefore, the utilization of USC will benefit to reduce diabetic complications in immigrants as well as reduction of overall health care cost burden, it would be necessary to implement USC in diabetes care at the initial disease stage.