© 2004 American Public Health Association
Yvette Roubideaux is with the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson. Dedra Buchwald is with the Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle. Janette Beals and Spero Manson are with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver. At the time of the study, Denise Middlebrook was with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver. Ben Muneta is with the Indian Health Service Epidemiology Program, Albuquerque, NM. Steve Rith-Najarian is with the Indian Health Service, Bemidji Area, Cass Lake, Minn, and Ray Shields was with the Indian Health Service, Portland Area, Bellingham, Wash. Kelly Acton is the director of the Indian Health Service National Diabetes Program, Albuquerque, NM. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Yvette Roubideaux, University of Arizona, College of Public Health, 500 N Tucson Blvd, Suite 110, Tucson, AZ 85716 (e-mail: yvetter{at}u.arizona.edu).
Objectives. This study evaluated the quality of diabetes care for older American Indians and Alaska Natives. Methods. We analyzed the Indian Health Service Diabetes Care and Outcomes Audit to determine whether completion of indicators of diabetes care differed as a function of age and whether additional patient and program factors were also associated with completion of the majority of the indicators. Results. Completion rates varied by age group, with significantly lower rates seen among the youngest and oldest. Patient diabetes education and duration of diabetes were most strongly associated with the completion of the majority of these indicators. Conclusions. Further studies are needed to determine effective interventions, including diabetes education, to improve the quality of diabetes care in the youngest and oldest age groups.
Diabetes is a serious problem for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) populations, which suffer from some of the highest rates of diabetes in the world. In some AIAN communities, more than half the adult population has diabetes and the prevalence is increasing.1,2 Previous studies in the general population have found that the frequency of diabetes and its complications increases with age3; similar trends are evident in AIAN communities.4 For instance, in the Strong Heart Study, a comprehensive epidemiological study of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors among 13 AIAN tribes, diabetes was found to be most common in the oldest age groups, with rates as high as 74% among women aged 6574 years living in Arizona.1 Recent studies have shown that intensive control of blood glucose levels and routine preventive screening can reduce complications among patients with diabetes.5,6 For example, the implementation of practice guidelines for routine foot care in an AIAN community was associated with a substantial reduction in lower extremity amputations over time.7 Generally, the quality of diabetes care has been defined, measured, and improved in AIAN communities using a combined clinical and public health approach.8 However, despite higher rates of diabetes and its complications in older individuals, no studies exist of the overall quality of care for older American Indians/Alaska Natives to determine whether they are receiving recommended medical care to prevent diabetes complications. In this study, we measured the quality of diabetes care for American Indians/Alaska Natives to determine if differences existed as a function of age. Thus, we addressed the following questions: (1) Do differences exist in the quality of diabetes care for older American Indians/Alaska Natives compared with younger patients and (2) if so, what patient and health care program factors explain these differences?
The quality of care for older American Indians/Alaska Natives with type 2 diabetes was evaluated in a cross-sectional study design using the Indian Health Service (IHS) Diabetes Care and Outcomes Audit data set for 1997. The IHS National Diabetes Program uses the audit to monitor the quality of diabetes care in Indian health programs (including IHS, tribal, and urban programs). The audit is a voluntary, annual systematic review of a random sample of medical records in each participating program, and quality diabetes care is defined as having met the IHS Minimum Standards of Care of Patients with Diabetes.9,10 The 1997 data set contained information on 87 demographic and quality-of-care indicators for 9626 individuals from 152 programs in all 12 IHS service areas. The IHS is organized by service units, which are often composed of several health programs/facilities. The programs that participated in the audit in 1997 represented 128 of the 150 service units in the IHS. Results reported by a few programs may represent data from both the main facility and 1 or more satellite clinics in the same community. Sample sizes for the medical record review in each program were based on a previously described random sampling strategy.8 Sample sizes for the medical record review in each program were based on a systematic random sampling technique in which a minimal sample size for each diabetes program was determined based on the total number of patients with diabetes in that programs registry and a calculated minimal sample size to ensure with 90% confidence that a 10% difference in results would be significant. In 1997, Indian health programs reported 61 185 total patients with diabetes in their registries to the IHS National Diabetes Program. The 152 programs participating in the 1997 audit included information on a total of 9626 patients with diabetes through use of the sampling strategy described earlier. After the medical records were reviewed, the data were analyzed with Epi Info Software11 at each program, and the completed files were aggregated for analysis at the IHS service area and national levels. To protect the confidentiality of the participants in this study, patient identifiers were removed from the data set, and program and area identifiers were masked. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows 10.0.7, 2000 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, Ill). The results of selected quality-of-care indicators for diabetes were analyzed for the overall sample and as a function of age. For the purposes of this study, we considered the definition of "elder" patients within the context of AIAN culture. Although studies on older adults in the general US population have generally examined Medicare recipients (those aged 65 years or older), this literature may not reflect the AIAN experience because in many tribes elder status is not solely a function of chronological age. Because of increased morbidity and mortality, impairments associated with aging among American Indians/Alaska Natives may occur 20 years earlier than in the general population.12 American Indians/Alaska Natives often require, at a younger age, services typically developed solely for the "elderly." For example, Title VI of the Older Americans Act has recognized the need to provide services to American Indians/Alaska Natives living on reservations who are younger than age 60 years by allowing each tribe to set its own age eligibility requirements. Thus, for analytic purposes, individuals were grouped into 4 categories: younger than 45 years; 45 to 64 years; 65 to 74 years; and 75 years or older. The groups 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 years of age revealed similar results, so these age groups were combined in the final analysis. The 13 quality-of-care measures evaluated were present in the IHS Minimum Standards of Care of Patients with Diabetes, which was based on the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Recommendations during the time period of this study, specifically: completion of recommended annual examinations (foot, eye, dental); routine laboratory tests completed at least once within the past year (cholesterol, creatinine, urinalysis, glycosylated hemoglobin); routine immunizations completed according to standards (influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations); general diabetes education at least once within the last year; and standard procedures performed at each visit at least 75% of the time (routine blood glucose level, blood pressure monitoring, and weight measurements). The variables measured the proportion of persons in each age group for whom a particular standard of care was completed according to IHS criteria. Missing values (range 0% to 16.7%, mean 2.0%) were omitted from the analysis for all the indicators. For 3 of the indicators (blood pressure, blood glucose level, and weight), missing values were greater (range 24.7% to 26.4%, mean 25.4%), so results for these indicators are only presented in the initial descriptive analysis of completion rates, and not in the subsequent regression analyses. For 6 indicators, "refused" was a response option, but refusal rates for all these indicators were small (range 0.3% to 4.5%, mean 1.9%), so they were included in the "not completed" category for each indicator in the analyses.
Pearson
The proportion of the sample that completed the majority of indicators (
Logistic regression analyses were then performed to determine which factors were associated with completion of 5 or more indicators. Initially, univariate logistic regression was performed to determine which factors were significantly associated with the outcome or dependent variable (score
The mean age of the sample was 54.8 years (SD ± 14.2) with a greater proportion of females than males (59% vs 41%). For all patients, the average duration of diabetes was 8.6 years, and the mean glycosylated hemoglobin level was 8.8% (SD ± 2.2). Completion rates for the 13 diabetes quality-of-care indicators are shown in Table 1
In Table 3
In the multivariate logistic regression analysis (data not shown), age, duration of diabetes, and receipt of diabetes education were again the only factors significantly associated with completion of 5 or more indicators in both models tested, with similar magnitudes of association as the stratified analysis. A final model of the association of diabetes education and duration of diabetes with completion of 5 or more indicators, adjusted for age and gender, was significant at P < .001 with adjusted odds ratios of 3.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.8, 3.6) for diabetes education, and 1.7 (95% CI = 1.5, 1.9) for duration of diabetes 5 or more years.
AIAN rates of adherence to recommended diabetes care guidelines15 often equal or exceed rates reported for the general population.16 However, no previous study assessed the quality of diabetes care for American Indians/Alaska Natives across different age groups or possible factors associated with higher completion rates. Furthermore, most studies in the general population of older individuals with diabetes used the age category 65 years or older or used Medicare data.17 In this study, age groups were chosen in an attempt to reflect the cultural definition of elder in AIAN communities, because American Indians/Alaska Natives are often considered elders at ages much younger than 65 years. Although the 4 age categories represented a broader age range than is usually reported in studies on the quality of diabetes care among older adults in the United States, the significant differences in care among the oldest and youngest age groups might have been obscured by using an age threshold of 65 years or older.
Even though significant variation was observed as a function of age, the lowest rates of completion for recommended examinations, laboratory tests, and immunizations were consistently found in the oldest ( Finally, using multivariate techniques that controlled for patient and program factors, diabetes education, duration of diabetes, and less strongly, older age were associated with completion of 5 or more indicators. Other individual and program factors were not significant. In other studies, a variety of factors have been found to be associated with better preventive care for diabetes and its complications. In recent reviews, older age, insulin use, having insurance status, higher educational level, and diabetes education were associated with better diabetes care.16,20 Another study actually found that younger age, comorbid medical diagnoses, insulin use, greater number of visits, and greater access to care were associated with greater completion rates of 3 common indicators of care.21 In this study, duration of diabetes for 5 or more years was associated with completion of 5 or more indicators, and this likely reflects greater experience with the health care system and more opportunities for diabetes education and preventive care, consistent with the previous studies. The factor most strongly associated with completion of 5 or more indicators was diabetes education, even when adjusted for age, gender, duration of diabetes, and other program factors. Diabetes education has been shown to be essential to effective diabetes care22 and has been associated with improved short-term outcomes for patients with diabetes,23 especially when included as a part of a comprehensive disease management or case management program.24 The association found in this study is likely due to the practice in Indian health programs of primary care providers initially referring individuals with diabetes to the diabetes educator, who provides information and education on preventive care services needed during the year. There are several limitations to this retrospective, cross-sectional study. First, the independent variable in the regression analysis (diabetes education) represents a visit that could have contained multiple components of diabetes teaching delivered by various types of health professionals and was unlikely to be standardized across Indian health programs or individual patients. In addition, the data set did not contain the date the quality-of-care indicators were completed or the number of clinic visits during the year of the study. Thus, although diabetes education was strongly associated with completion of recommended examinations and procedures, the temporal relation among these variables is unknown. Likewise, we could not determine to what extent the association of diabetes education with greater completion of indicators reflected frequent visits and, therefore, increased opportunities for care. In addition, because our results reflect the care received by users of programs that voluntarily participated in the IHS Diabetes Care and Outcomes Audit, we cannot comment on the care of patients with diabetes who were infrequent users of the Indian health system or who may have been receiving care from other non-Indian health sources. Because programs voluntarily participated in the audit, selection bias was possible, because programs with better outcomes might have been more likely to participate. To minimize this possibility, the IHS National Diabetes Program and area diabetes consultants encouraged all programs to participate in the audit as a routine part of their quality-improvement efforts, regardless of their potential results. Programs are encouraged to use these results to identify areas for improvements in care and to monitor their performance over time. IHS area and national reports do not identify programs by name, so confidentially of results is maintained. Other factors not assessed here may also influence the completion of recommended diabetes care indicators, such as socioeconomic status,25 educational level, transportation, and other patient, provider, and health system characteristics. Lastly, our analysis used 1997 data that was collected just before the implementation of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians initiative in 1998, which resulted in many new diabetes programs and services in Indian communities to prevent and treat diabetes. Because the authors plan a follow-up study in 2003 to review whether diabetes care for older American Indians/Alaska Natives has improved over time in comparison with this baseline study, the results of this study are especially germane. This study assessed diabetes care by measuring completion rates for various examinations and laboratory tests as recommended by the IHS Minimum Standards of Diabetes Care in place at the time of the study. Additional measurements and comparisons of intermediate outcomes of diabetes treatment have been recommended more recently, such as in the Diabetes Quality Improvement Project measures set16 or in the RAND Corprecommended indicators of quality for diabetes mellitus.26 These measures include intermediate outcomes of care, such as achievement of specific levels of blood pressure or glucose control, and are not included in our study because those criteria were not widely used at the time of this study and the audit was not initially designed to measure those specific indicators. The original purpose of the audit was to measure performance on selected diabetes care indicators among programs within the Indian health system for internal quality-improvement purposes, not for comparison to other non-Indian health programs. A recent article by the IHS National Diabetes Program does demonstrate how the Diabetes Quality Improvement Project measures can be applied to one of the more recent audit reviews, and the audit is currently being modified to enable comparison using national standardized measures in the future.15 However, the measures used in this study focus on completion of recommended examinations and laboratory tests and are comparable to those of other studies. Recommendations for the care of older adults with diabetes are similar to those for all ages, with the goals of individualizing preventive care to help reduce morbidity and mortality, as well as maximizing quality of life and overall functioning.19,27,28 This study suggests the need for further attention to the quality of care in both older and younger adults with diabetes for many of the indicators measured. Recent evidence that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing in AIAN youth29 underscores the need for greater efforts to improve the quality of diabetes care in all age groups. Although a striking finding was the strong association of diabetes education with adherence to recommended procedures, future studies are needed to identify the specific diabetes education program components associated with better outcomes, clarify the temporal association of diabetes education with completion of quality-of-care indicators, and determine the effect of visit frequency on completion rates. Finally, with the substantial and continuing increase in both the number of older Americans3 and older American Indians/Alaska Natives,30 it will be crucial to modify or adapt standards of care relevant to specific age and cultural groups.
Contributors Y. Roubideaux conceived the study and supervised and participated in all aspects of its design, conduct, and implementation and in the analysis, interpretation of results, and writing. D. Buchwald assisted with design, interpretation, and writing. J. Beals assisted with study design and analysis, and the writing. D. Middlebrook assisted with study design, analysis, and reviewing the article. S. Manson assisted with study design, interpretation of analysis, and reviewing the article. B. Muneta assisted with study design, interpretation of results, and reviewing the article. S. Rith-Najarian assisted with collection of data, interpretation of results, and reviewing the article. R. Shields assisted with collection of data, analysis, and reviewing the article. K. Acton assisted with study design, approval of use of data, interpretation of analysis, and reviewing the article.
Human Participant Protection Accepted for publication April 24, 2003.
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