title: Quality of diabetes care in primary health centres in north Al-batinah of oman.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the quality of diabetic care provided in primary health care settings in Oman.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional study of randomly selected 500 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) attending 6 primary care diabetic clinics in the north Al-Batinah region of Oman from January to December 2010. Nine standards on the quality of diabetes care were audited.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the sample was 51±13 years, ranging from 15 to 87 years; the majority (61%) were females. The mean duration of DM was 4±3 years, ranging from 1 to 18 years. Seventy-seven percent of the patients attended diabetic clinics at least 4 times per year. Of the 9 assessed diabetic standards, HbA1c was documented in 33% of the patients, body mass index in 12%, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in 40%, urinary albumin:creatinine ratio in 28%, creatinine in 63% and blood pressure (BP) in 96%. Optimal control among the documented indicators was noted in 32, 21, 25, 85, 95 and 19%, respectively. Twenty percent of the patients had their ECGs done while only 39% of the patients had foot examination. No patient had attained control in all of HbA1c., BP and LDL-C.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a gap between the recommended DM care guidelines and current practice with consequent poor quality of care in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Shafaee
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
authors.forename: Yousuf
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Al-Farsi
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
authors.forename: Yousuf
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Al-Kaabi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman ; Familial Hypercholesterolemia Study Group, Oman Society for Lipid and Atherosclerosis (OSLA), Muscat, Oman.
authors.forename: Yajnavalka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
authors.forename: Najat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Zadjali
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman ; Gulf Health Research, Muscat, Oman.
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Al-Zakwani
keywords: Arab; Oman; diabetes mellitus; diabetic standards; quality of care.