Does patient education facilitate diabetic patients’ possibilities to reach national treatment targets?

Figures & data

Table I.  Proportions of patients, in individual counselling and in group education, reaching the national treatment targets for HbA_1c, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), cholesterol. and physical activity.

	Individual counselling			Group education added to the individual counselling
	Checklist-driven	Individualization based on patients’ needs	Individual counselling*	Pre-planned	Individualization based on patients’ needs	Group education*
Number of PHCCs	n = 244	n = 40	n = 201	n = 70	n = 9	n = 26
Number of diabetic patients	n = 47 979	n = 7 232	n = 36 426	n = 15 263	n = 2 617	n = 4 339
Proportion of patients (%)
HbA1c<6.5%	67.8	69.1	66.3	68.5	71.3	67.9
BMI < 25 kg/m^2	18.5	16.7	17.7	18.8	19.2	18.2
BP ≤ 140/ ≤ 85 mm Hg	57.9	59.5	55.8	58.5	61.9	59.8
Cholesterol < 5.0 mmol/l	57.6	58.0	56.2	58.1	58.3	58.5
Physical activity
3–5 times/week	21.0	18.3	20.4	21.4	16.5	20.0

Note: *Not explained how they performed the education.

Table II.  Multiple linear regression models with the dependent variables: (1) HbA_1c, (2), body mass index (BMI), (3) blood pressure (BP), (4) cholesterol, and (5) physical activity, reported as the percentage of patients who reached these treatment targets at primary healthcare centres (PHCCs).

Dependent variable	Independent variables	Slope	t	P	Adj R^2
HbA1c<6.5%	List size of PHCCs	1.152	1.949	0.052	0.057
	Number of WTE general practitioners (GPs) per 1000 patients	−8.757	−3.059	0.002
	Diabetes-responsible GP	1.861	1.749	0.081
	Setting individual HbA1c goals	11.099	2.121	0.034
BMI < 25 kg/m^2	List size of PHCCs	0.583	1.915	0.056	0.021
	Individual counselling based upon patients? needs	−1.392	−1.679	0.094
	Setting individual lifestyle goals	4.652	1.905	0.058
BP ≤140/ ≤85 mm Hg	List size of PHCCs	1.755	2.703	0.007	0.049
	Diabetes specialist nurse (DSN) with 1.5 to 15 ECTS points postgraduate education in diabetes	4.169	2.069	0.039
	DSN with >15 ECTS points postgraduate education in diabetes	5.814	2.582	0.010
	Setting individual lipid goals	5.794	2.714	0.007
Cholesterol <5.0 mmol/l	Setting individual lipid goals	6.430	3.129	0.002	0.021
Physical activity 3–5 times/week	Number of WTE DSN per 500 diabetic patients	−2.598	−1.712	0.088	0.022
	Diabetes-responsible GP	2.754	1.878	0.061
	Setting individual HbA1c goals	14.032	1.955	0.051

Notes: All variables with p-value <0.10 were included in the models. ECTS = European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System.