A1c, blood pressure and cholesterol goal achievement in patients of Type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Background: Management of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) requires comprehensive control of three metabolic parameters (A1c, blood pressure, and cholesterol [ABC]), popularly known as the ABCs of diabetes. We studied the prevalence of patients reaching the ABC goals in Indian diabetes patients. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at two tertiary level care centers in India. All patients with a diagnosis of T2D (aged 30-75 years, 1 year duration, received a prescription for an oral hypoglycemic agent, or insulin) seen between January and June 2014 were included in this cross-sectional, observational study. Patients with a major illness, recent surgery or diabetic ketoacidosis, use of glucocorticoids, posttransplant, and gestational diabetes were excluded from the study. Descriptive statistics were used for describing the data, and Chi-square test was used for analyzing the frequency distribution. Results: The study participants (531 male:469 female) had a mean age of 46.9 ± 12.3 year, body mass index of 28.2 ± 5.5 kg/m 2 , and an A1c of 8.7 ± 1.9%. A total of 90 patients (9%) achieved the 3 part ABC goal. The 2 point goal of adequate control of blood pressure (BP) and lipids is achieved in the majority of the patients (46.5%). The individual goals of all the three constituents were achieved by 201 patients for glucose, 942 patients for BP and 509 patients for the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Conclusion: Our data showed that only 9% of patients achieved the ABC goals. Our study highlights the urgent unmet need, to improve the quality of diabetes care in our country.