- Few People With Diabetes Have Complication Risks Under Control
A national study suggests that only a small number of Americans with diabetes have key health markers under control -- putting them at risk for complications such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. Government researchers found that among 441 adults with diabetes included in a periodic national health study, only 7.3% had their blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol at recommended levels.
People in the study, which was conducted between 1999 and 2000, were more likely than those surveyed in a study 5 to 10 years earlier to be taking medication for the three problems. Nevertheless, the authors found, only 37% of the study participants had a desirable hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level (less than 7.0%). A similarly low number -- 36% -- had blood pressure levels below 130/80 mm Hg, the recommended upper limit. In addition, half of men had cholesterol levels higher than 200 mg/dL, as did nearly 54% of women.
More needs to be done, the study authors conclude, to reduce the number of people with diabetes in the United States who continue to have problems controlling their blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. The study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 291, page 335, 2004).
- Skipping Diabetes Drugs Boosts Hospitalization Risk
People who need medication for their type 2 diabetes are at increased risk for hospitalization if they fail to take their drugs as prescribed, according to a study reported in Diabetes Care (Volume 27, page 2149, September 2004). Although glucose-lowering drugs, along with insulin, diet, and exercise, are mainstays of diabetes treatment, many patients don’t take their diabetes medications as prescribed, especially if they have no symptoms, the researchers note. They sought to determine whether nonadherence to medication among adults with type 2 diabetes increased their risk of hospitalization.
Adherence was defined as the number of days a patient had a supply of a particular diabetes medication, determined by when he or she refilled the prescription. Patients were defined as nonadherent if they had a supply of the diabetes medication less than 80% of the time. The study included 900 men and women, nearly 46% of whom were taking several diabetes glucose-lowering drugs. The researchers gauged participants’ medication adherence for 2000 and compared it with their likelihood of hospitalization in 2001.
About 29% of the patients were defined as nonadherent. These patients were two and a half times more likely to be hospitalized during the following year than those who refilled their diabetes medicines as prescribed.
