A personalized care plan is positively associated with better clinical outcomes in the care of patients with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional real-life study

Abstract

Aims To investigate whether the use of a personalized care plan is associated with clinical outcomes of type 2 diabetes (T2D) treatment in real-world. Methods Quality of treatment was assessed using data from a yearly sample of patients with T2D visiting primary care health centres in 2012–2016. Patients were divided into three groups: 1) patient has a copy of their personalized care plan, 2) care plan exists in the patient record only or 3) patient has no care plan. Data on smoking, laboratory tests, systolic blood pressure (sBP) and statin use were collected. We compared the outcomes between the three groups in terms of proportions of patients achieving the clinical targets recommended by international guidelines. Results Evaluable data were available for 10,403 patients. Of these, 1,711 (16%) had a copy of their personalized care plan, and 3,623 (35%) had no care plan. Those who had a copy of their care plan were significantly more likely than those without to achieve the sBP target (odds ratio [OR] 1.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29–1.51, p