Frequent Doctor Visits Could Improve Diabetes Control

Thu, 29 Sep 2011

People with diabetes could improve their health by making frequent visits to a primary care clinician, according to new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine .

The study found that that frequent visits to the doctor can help diabetics achieve quicker control of their blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of future health complications .

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston analyzed data from more than 25,000 adult diabetes patients with elevated blood glucose levels who visited primary care doctors in Boston for at least two years between January 2000 and January 2009.

They found that patients who saw their doctor every one to two weeks achieved their treatment goals much quicker than those who made a visit every three to six months.

Average times for reaching achievement goals were 4.4 months versus 24.9 months without insulin, 10.1 versus 52.8 months with insulin for blood glucose, 1.3 months versus 13.9 months for blood pressure and 5.1 months versus 32.8 months for cholesterol.

The authors wrote: "Current guidelines provide little guidance for how frequently patients with DM should be seen by their physicians, apart from the recommendation for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurement every three months.

"The present findings provide evidence that for many patients with elevated hemoglobin A1c, BP or LDL-C, more frequent patient-provider encounters were associated with a shorter time to treatment target, and control was fastest at two-week intervals.

"Encounters every two weeks may, therefore, be appropriate for the most severely uncontrolled patients or under a different treatment care model."

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