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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Carolyn Rutledge, PhD, Sami Jarour, MS, and Stacey B Plichta, ScD. College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, 129 Spong Hall, Norfolk, VA 23529
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if family practice physicians are treating their diabetic patients according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines.
Design and Methods: this study was conducted at an urban primary care facility in the southeast. A random sample of 100 patients’ charts were selected and followed up for one year. Follow up data was collected on the 77 patients who had a visit to the practice in the one-year follow up time. At the beginning of the study, physicians and residents involved were provided with educational material regarding the ADA guidelines in managing type II diabetes. Data was collected on patients’ age, gender, weight, height, exams and testes performed or requested. The mean age of the sample was 67.2 years (SD=7.5) with females comprising 67.6%.
Results: Overall 54.5% of patients received care according to the ADA guidelines. During the year of the study, 93.5% had a cardiovascular exam, 87.0% were tested for creatinine clearance, 76.6% had foot exam, 71.4% had home glucose monitoring, 67.5% of patients were tested for [HgbA1c] level, 62.3% had dilated eye exam and 50.6% had lipid profile.
Logistic regression model demonstrated that patients treated by residents were significantly more likely to receive care according to ADA guidelines, but that no patient characteristic was predictive of receiving good care.
Conclusions: Physicians did not routinely adhere to ADA guidelines. Providers in residency programs might be inclined to adhere to guidelines of practice given their status of training. The importance of guidelines should be communicated to providers.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Diabetes, Physicians
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.