[Discrepancy in attitudes toward diabetes between physicians and diabetic patients attending the private, social security or state medical services].
OBJECTIVE
One of the biggest challenges of the Mexican Health System is to get results of the treatment goals in diabetic patients, which can be frustrated by physician and patient's attitudes. The present study evaluates divergence of attitude of health providers and diabetic patients according to health sectors: private, social security or State medical services.


METHODS
They contributed 255 physicians and 255 diabetic patients in ambulatory care from three health sectors: private, social security and welfare (employees and patients were exclusive providers and patients of corresponding institutions). The Diabetes Attitude Scale 3 (DAS-3) was applied, a self-administered instrument used to compare attitudes between health care professionals and patients. Discrepancies were analyzed with t-tests, chi2, one-way ANOVA and post hoc multiple comparisons for observed means based on the Tukey test.


RESULTS
Physician and patient's attitudes differed in all scales except for psychosocial impact of diabetes, which was independent of the health sector. Attitudes were not alike with respect to severity of the disease, value of tight control of glucose levels and patient autonomy, with no distinction of health sector. Discrepancy of need for special training was the only attitude that varied by health sector (F = 4.1; p = 0.02); it was similar for the private and social security sector but different for the welfare sector.


CONCLUSIONS
All health sectors should recognize attitude discrepancies between doctors and patients to favor collaborative strategies that benefit a better control of the disease.
Salinas-Martínez
Ana María
AM
Unidad de Investigación Epidemiológica y en Servicios de Salud, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. amsalinasm@cis.gob.mx
Mathiew-Quiros
Alvaro
A
Núñez-Rocha
Georgina Mayela
GM
Garza-Elizondo
María Eugenia
ME
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians; D017149:Private Sector; D017150:Public Sector