Guideline adherence and health outcomes in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients: a cross-sectional study

Table 3 Description of patient characteristics and unadjusted health outcomes for all patients (n = 363) and at practice level (n = 32)

		Patients			Practices
		n	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	p-value*
Patient characteristics
Age (years)		363	65	58 - 74	66	63 - 70	0.02
Sex (% males)		363	49%		52%	43 - 58%	1.00
Years since diagnosis		175	6	3 - 9	7	5 - 9	0.04
Number of related comorbidities¹		363	1	0 - 1	0.6	0.4 - 0.9	0.00
Number of unrelated comorbidities²		363	0	0 - 1	0.4	0.2 - 0.5	0.02
SES indicator³	Low	363	46%		44%
	Middle		34%		34%
	High		20%		22%
Health outcomes
BMI (kg/m²)⁴		343	29	26 - 33	29	29 - 31	0.10
Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)⁵		363	135	123 - 145	134	131 - 140	0.02
HbA1C (mmol/mol)⁶		361	50	45 - 56	51	48 - 55	0.01
LDL cholesterol (mmol/L)⁷		358	2.3	1.9 - 2.9	2.5	2.2 - 2.6	1.00
Urine albumin (mg/L)⁸		341	6	3 - 13	11	6 - 32	0.06
GFR (ml/min)⁹		356	68	60 - 89	74	63 - 86	0.00
Smoking (% smokers)		353	18%		17%	11 - 25%	1.00

*Differences between practices, tested in hierarchical regression model, without other independent factors.
ICC of patient characteristics, range: 0.07-0.16. ICC of outcomes, range: 0.04-0.25.
¹in total 12 ICPC codes.
²in total 63 ICPC codes.
³Score calculated nationally based on the postal code of the general practice where the patient was treated, low = lowest tertile, middle = middle tertile, high = highest tertile.
⁴Body mass index (range in this study: 19-53).
⁵Systolic blood pressure (range in this study: 95-197).
⁶Glycosylated haemoglobin (range in this study: 32-99).
⁷Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (range in this study: 0.5-5.9).
⁸Urine albumin (range in this study: 0-1023).
⁹Glomerular filtration rate, higher is better (range in this study: 13-178).
IQR, interquartile range.

ISSN: 1472-6963