Patient perspective of care essential for disease management

Patients’ self-management capabilities and judgment of quality care correlated with quality of life among patients with diabetes, according to data presented at EASD 2013.

These findings highlight the importance of optimal diabetes disease management and treatment, according to Sixten Borg, MSc, research manager of mathematics at the Swedish Institute for Health Economics, in Lund, Sweden.

The analysis included 1,124 patients with type 1 diabetes and 1,792 patients with type 2 diabetes. An additional 1,656 patients with type 1 diabetes and 1,431 with type 2 diabetes were included for data validation, according to abstract data.

Their patient reported outcomes were calculated using the item response theory to develop scores based on a questionnaire on patient capabilities/functioning and judgments of quality of provided care.

Borg said patients with lower item response theory scores appeared to have increased HbA1c levels. However, this was not recognized for outcomes such as blood pressure or LDL.

“The perspective based on traditional risk factor control differs from the patient’s perspective that we defined based on patient reported outcomes measures and patient reported experience measures in this way,” Borg said during a presentation. “We believe that both perspectives provide valuable information to maximize the patient’s health-related quality of life and for avoiding diabetes related complications.”

For more information:

Palaszewski B. Oral Presentation #124. Presented at: the 49th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes; Sept. 24-27, 2013; Barcelona, Spain.

Disclosure: This study was supported by an unrestricted grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb.