Temporal trends in hospitalization for lower extremity peripheral artery disease in Ontario: the importance of diabetes

We sought to assess temporal trends in peripheral artery disease (PAD)-related hospitalization rates in Ontario. Trends in quarterly rates of PAD hospitalization per 100,000 Ontarians between 2006 and 2019 were assessed using autocorrelated linear regression. Stratified analyses by age, sex and most responsible diagnosis code type (with vs. without diabetes-specific PAD codes) were performed. From 2006 to 2019, overall PAD hospitalizations did not decrease significantly when including diabetes-specific codes. A significant decrease was observed among women and those over 65 years old. Future studies of PAD epidemiology and outcomes using administrative data should include diabetic angiopathy.