Profile of people served through telemedicine by the diabetes unit of a digital hospital in Chile

Abstract

Traditionally, diabetes management has involved a face-to-face meeting between the doctor and the patient. However, incorporating new tools such as telemedicine into clinical practice may be beneficial for controlling this disease. To describe, according to sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the people treated through telemedicine by the diabetes cell of the Digital Hospital in Chile. descriptive study with secondary data of 1427 people from the clinical registry of the diabetes cell of the Digital Hospital. The analysis included percentages, measures of central tendency, and X2 or UMann-Whitney test (p-value < 0.05) to test for independence between gender strata. 61% of the people were women, and the median age was 62 years. About 65% presented arterial hypertension and/or dyslipidemia, almost 55% of adults presented obesity, and more than 90% did not perform physical activity. More than 80% use insulin, and just over 45% of adults have HbA1c > 10%. Approximately 20% presented retinopathy, 17% neuropathy, and 13% risk offoot ulceration. Almost 45% of those diagnosed with nephropathy had a prognosis of very high-risk chronic kidney disease. The people who are treated through telemedicine by the diabetes cell of the Digital Hospital are mostly women and older adults from Familiy Health Care Centres (CESFAM), who present comorbidities, use insulin, are sedentary, have malnutrition due to excess, deficient metabolic control and their main diabetic complication is retinopathy.