Early short-term intensive multidisciplinary diabetes care: A ten-year follow-up of outcomes.

Abstract

To evaluate the outcome of an early short-term intensive diabetic care program followed by a regular out-patient shared-care education program. We retrospectively reviewed the medical charts of 196 patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) who were admitted to the hospital for intensive multidisciplinary interventions. For comparison, we also enrolled 206 patients with type 2 DM newly diagnosed but not receiving short-term intensive program. Both groups all attended an out-patient shared-care education program for more than one year. Outcome measure included average and standard deviation (SD) of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) over ten years, serum creatinine (Cr), lipid profile, urine albumin/Cr (UACR), and chronic diabetic complications after 10years later. The Kaplan-Meier event happening rates were used to compare the event rate of two samples. Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models were used to investigate the influence of different variables on chronic complications. Patients who received short-term intensive diabetic education had less SD of HbA1cs: (0.7±0.7% vs. 1.0±0.8% (5.3±5.3mmol/mol vs 9.2±6.4mmol/mol), p<0.001), less new-onset coronary heart disease (CHD) (8.2% vs. 13.7%, p=0.005), lower serum Cr (1.4±0.7mg/dL vs. 1.5±0.9mg/dL, p=0.005), less progression of nephropathy was also revealed (13.5% vs. 21.2%, p=0.009) and lower UACR (4.7±1.4mg/g vs. 5.3±1.0mg/g, p<0.001). There were no group differences in age, gender distribution, average HbA1c, lipid profile, and new-onset of neuropathy and retinopathy. The independent predictors of CHD and nephropathy were short-term intensive diabetic education and SD of HbA1cs. Initiation of earlier intensive short-term multidisciplinary interventions in patients with newly diagnosed DM may decrease coronary heart disease and nephropathy. These better outcomes may be related to less fluctuation in blood glucose levels.