Missed appointments and poor glycemic control: an opportunity to identify high-risk diabetic patients.
OBJECTIVE
When patients miss scheduled medical appointments, continuity and effectiveness of healthcare delivery is reduced, appropriate monitoring of health status lapses, and the cost of health services increases. We evaluated the relationship between missed appointments and glycemic control (glycosylated hemoglobin or HbA1c) in a large, managed care population of diabetic patients.


METHODS
Missed appointment rate was related cross-sectionally to glycemic control among 84,040 members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry during 2000. Adjusted least-square mean estimates of HbA1c were derived by level of appointment keeping (none missed, 1-30% missed, and >30% missed appointments for the calendar year) stratified by diabetes therapy.


RESULTS
Twelve percent of the subjects missed more than 30% of scheduled appointments during 2000. Greater rates of missed appointments were associated with significantly poorer glycemic control after adjusting for demographic factors (age, sex), clinical status, and health care utilization. The adjusted mean HbA1c among members who missed >30% of scheduled appointments was 0.70 to 0.79 points higher (P <0.0001) relative to those attending all appointments. Patients who missed more than 30% of their appointments were less likely to practice daily self-monitoring of blood glucose and to have poor oral medication refill adherence.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients who underuse care lack recorded information needed to determine level of risk. Frequently missed appointments were associated with poorer glycemic control and suboptimal diabetes self-management practice, are readily ascertained in clinical settings, and therefore could have clinical utility as a risk-stratifying criterion indicating the need for targeted case management.
Karter
Andrew J
AJ
Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, California 94612, USA. Andy.J.Karter@kp.org
Parker
Melissa M
MM
Moffet
Howard H
HH
Ahmed
Ameena T
AT
Ferrara
Assiamira
A
Liu
Jennifer Y
JY
Selby
Joe V
JV
D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002140:California; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007328:Insulin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods
D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D007328:Insulin