<b>Purpose. </b>A variety of symptoms may be
associated with type 2 diabetes and its complications. Symptoms in chronic
diseases may be described in terms of prevalence, severity, and trajectory and
often co-occur in groups, known as symptom clusters, which may be
representative of a common etiology. The purpose of this study was to
characterize type 2 diabetes–related symptoms using a large nationwide electronic
health record (EHR) database.
<p><b>Methods. </b>We acquired the
Cerner Health Facts, a nationwide EHR database. The type 2 diabetes cohort (<i> n </i>= 1,136,301 patients) was identified
using a rule-based phenotype method. A multi-step procedure was then used to
identify type 2 diabetes–related symptoms based on <i>International Classification of Diseases</i>,<i> </i>9th and 10th revisions, diagnosis codes. Type 2 diabetes–related
symptoms and co-occurring symptom clusters, including their temporal patterns,
were characterized based the longitudinal EHR data. </p>
<p><b>Results.</b> Patients had a
mean age of 61.4 years, 51.2% were female, and 70.0% were White. Among 1,136,301
patients, there were 8,008,276 occurrences of 59 symptoms.
The most frequently reported symptoms included pain, heartburn, shortness of
breath, fatigue, and swelling, which occurred in 21–60% of the patients. We also observed over-represented
type 2 diabetes symptoms, including difficulty speaking, feeling confused, trouble
remembering, weakness, and drowsiness/sleepiness. Some of these are
rare and difficult to detect by traditional patient-reported outcomes studies.</p>
<p><b>Conclusion.</b> To the best of
our knowledge, this is the first study to use a nationwide EHR database to
characterize type 2 diabetes–related symptoms and their temporal patterns.
Fifty-nine symptoms, including both over-represented and rare diabetes-related
symptoms, were identified. </p>