Poster Presentation Australian Diabetes Society and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association Annual Scientific Meeting 2016

A comparison of GP and specialist diabetes clinic based adult Type 1 diabetes glucose self-care and control. (#236)

Gary Kilov 1 , Andrzej S Januszewski 2 3 , Christina Larsson 2 4 , Johnny Ludwigsson 4 , Richard MacIsaac 5 , Glenn Ward 5 , David N O'Neal 3 5 , Gregory Fulcher 6 , Rachel McGrath 6 , Alicia J Jenkins 2 3
  1. The Seaport Practice, Launceston, TAS, Australia
  2. NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
  3. Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia
  4. Department of Pediatrics, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
  5. Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  6. Department of Endocrinology, Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney, St Leonards, NSW, Australia

Background: People with type 1 diabetes (T1D) spend <0.001% time annually with their diabetes-care team, hence education/self-management are key. In Australia most T1D patients have specialist physician care, with sole GP or shared care being more likely outside major cities.  

Aims: To 1) explore adult T1D patient care and behaviour re glycaemia by 2) developing/using a survey, and 3) compare demographics in a T1D interested GP clinic and two tertiary referral diabetes clinics.

Methods: Informed consent was obtained. Over 3-months participants completed a (10-15 min. paper) questionnaire re demographics, insulin delivery, self-monitoring, hypoglycaemia frequency, low and high glucose and high ketone treatment behaviours and desire for further education. Descriptive analyses, t-tests, Chi-square-tests, ANOVA and logistic regression were performed with statistical significance at p<0.05.

Results: 205 adult T1D patients from SVH and RNS tertiary referral clinics (90% of all eligible) and 35 from a GP practice (with >80% GP-only diabetes care) participated. Specialist clinic outcomes were similar so were merged for comparison with the GP clinic. Results (Table1) are mean(SD) or %, with significance at p<0.05.

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Conclusions: Overnight glycaemia related self-care by adults with T1D are similar in a T1D skilled GP practice and tertiary referral diabetes clinics.