What are patient factors associated with the quality of diabetes care?: results from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
BACKGROUND
Recently there has been a growing interest in healthcare quality control in Korea. We examined the association between patient factors and quality indicators of diabetic care among Korean adults with diabetes.


METHODS
We obtained a sample of 335 adults aged 20 or older diagnosed with diabetes from the 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Patient factors were divided into two categories: socioeconomic position and health-related factors. Quality indicators for diabetes care were defined as receiving preventive care services for diabetes complications (e.g., fundus examination, microalbuminuria examination, diabetes education) and diabetes-related clinical outcomes (e.g., HbA1c, blood pressure, LDL-cholesterol). We performed multiple logistic regression analyses for each quality indicator.


RESULTS
We found that people with lower education levels or shorter duration of diabetes illness were less likely to receive preventive care services for diabetes complications. Women or people with longer duration of diabetes were less likely to reach the glycemic target. Obese diabetic patients were less likely to accomplish adequate control of blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol.


CONCLUSIONS
Several factors of patients with diabetes, such as education level, duration of illness, gender, and obesity grade are associated with the quality of diabetes care. These findings can help inform policy makers about subpopulations at risk in developing a public health strategy in the future.
Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, 110-744, Republic of Korea.
Ki Dong
KD
Ko
Bo Hyun
BH
Kim
Sang Min
SM
Park
Soo
S
In Oh
Chun Sik
CS
Um
Dong Wook
DW
Shin
Hae Won
HW
Lee
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult