Blood glucose control in diabetes patients seen in primary health care centers

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated to poor glycemic control among diabetic patients seen at primary health care centers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 372 diabetic patients attending 32 primary health care centers in southern Brazil. Data on three hierarchical levels of health unit infrastructure, medical care and patient characteristics were collected. RESULTS: The frequency of poor glycemic control was 50.5%. Multivariate analysis (multilevel method) showed that patients with body mass indexes below 27 kg/m², patients on oral hypoglycemic agents or insulin, and patients diagnosed as diabetic over five years prior to the interview were more likely to present poor glycemic control when compared to their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Given the hierarchical data structuring, all associations found suggest that factors associated to hyperglycemia are related to patient-level characteristics.

Factors associated with glycemic control in people with diabetes at the Family Health Strategy in Pernambuco

“…The BMI variable was inversely related to glycemic control, unlike that found in other studies (5,9,20) . The most likely explanation for this result is the understanding of the causal relationship between the explanatory variable and the outcome variable: adequate glycemic control can cause weight gain instead of weight gain improving glycemic control (21)(22) . It is worth noting that the variable did not remain associated to glycemic control in the multivariate analysis.…”

Global burden of disease attributable to diabetes mellitus in Brazil

“…Given that approximately 50% of individuals with diabetes mellitus are unaware of their diagnosis, 20-30% of patients who know their diagnosis lack treatment or follow-up 43,44 , 68% of known cases are diagnosed by chance or due to some clinical manifestation of late complications 43 , and 50-78% had poor blood glucose control 45,46 , effective measures are urgently needed to reduce this public health problem and ensure prevention, early diagnosis, with adequate and comprehensive counseling and treatment for patients with diabetes mellitus. …”

Comparative performance of lab tests and blood testing device to monitor glucose, total cholesterol and triacylglycerol in type 2 diabetic patients

“…The estimated number of 5.2 million sufferers in 2000 is expected to double by the year 2030 (Wild et al, 2004). However, glycemic control is lower than 50% (Gomes et al, 2006;Assunção, Santos, Valle, 2005), which inevitably contributes to the increasing occurrence of chronic complications in type 2 diabetic patients.…”

“…Furthermore, type 2 diabetes is normally asymptomatic, but if the disease is not adequately treated a range of chronic complications can result in reduced quality of life and premature death (Assunção, Santos, Valle, 2005).…”