Factors associated with glycemic control in type 2 diabetes patients at primary care unit, Pathumrat district, Roi-Et province, Thailand

Abstract

This study was a cross-sectional research design to determine the factors associated with glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients who were referred to 13 Primary Care Units at Pathumrat District, Roi-Et Province, Thailand (201 1). After obtaining the ethics review protocol, data collection was conducted in April, 201 1. Out of 1,071 populations with type 2 diabetes, 307 patients were chosen by systematic sampling procedure carried out at each Primary Care Unit. A questionnaire was used to interview the subjects regarding factors associated with glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. The questionnaire consisted of demographic characteristics, knowledge of diabetes, healthcare behaviors, and psychosocial factors, including data collection on glycemic level from medical record. Descriptive statistics was used (frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation) and Chi- square test, Pearson Correlation, and Spearman Rank Test were used to analyze the association between the study variables. SPSS version 16 was employed. The result showed that there were 238 women and 69 men with the mean age of 58.72±6.49 years old, duration of diabetes was mean 6.24± 4.10 years. Approximately 42.7% of the subjects were obese (mean BMI of 25.36±3.44). The mean glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) level was 8.26±1.96% and the proportion of patients who had good control (HbA1C <7%) was 26.1% while 73.9% of the subjects had value ≥7 identified as poor control. Factors statistically significant with glycemic control were duration of diabetes (positive direction, r =0.185, p<0.001), dietary habit (negative direction, r =-0.220, p<0.001) and drug compliance (negatively direction, r =-0.469, p<0.001). This study has indicated that the unsuccessful diabetes care among patients with type 2 diabetes treated in Primary Care Unit according to the goals of diabetes care. This becomes a great challenge to develop diabetes care system in the community with quality.