ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Nationwide studies on secular trends of diabetes complications are not available in Asia. We examined changes in risk factor control and incidence of complications from diabetes and death in a large longitudinal cohort of Chinese adults with type 2 diabetes in Hong Kong. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2012, 338,908 Chinese adults with type 2 diabetes underwent metabolic and complication assessment in 16 diabetes centers operated by Hong Kong Hospital Authority that provided care to a large majority of diagnosed patients. Patients were followed for incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and death until 31 December 2012. Risk factor levels between enrollment periods were compared. Incidence of clinical events, stratified by diabetes duration, was examined over time. RESULTS: Incidence of complications from diabetes and death declined over the observation period in patients at varying disease duration. Among the high-risk group with diabetes for at least 15 years, crude incidence of AMI decreased from 8.7 to 5.8, stroke from 13.5 to 10.1, ESRD from 25.8 to 22.5, and death from 29.0 to 26.6 per 1,000 person-year between the periods 2000 to 2002 and 2010 to 2012. Improvements in levels of metabolic risk factors were detected. Proportion of patients achieving HbA1c <7.0% (53 mmol/mol) was increased from 32.9 to 50.0%, blood pressure ≤130/80 mmHg from 24.7 to 30.7%, and LDL cholesterol <2.6 mmol/L from 25.8 to 38.1%. CONCLUSIONS: From this territory-wide Hong Kong Diabetes Database, we observed decreases in incidence of cardiovascular-renal complications and death and corresponding improvements in risk factor control over a 13-year period.
Subject(s)
Diabetes Complications/epidemiology , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/mortality , Kidney Failure, Chronic/epidemiology , Myocardial Infarction/epidemiology , Stroke/epidemiology , Aged , Asian People , Biomarkers/blood , Cholesterol/blood , Cohort Studies , Databases, Factual , Diabetes Complications/complications , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/complications , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Glycated Hemoglobin , Hong Kong/epidemiology , Humans , Hypoglycemic Agents/therapeutic use , Incidence , Kidney Failure, Chronic/complications , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Myocardial Infarction/complications , Prospective Studies , Risk Factors , Stroke/complicationsABSTRACT
Adherence with oral hypoglycaemic agent is crucial to achieve optimal glycaemic control. The 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) has been frequently used, yet the association between MMAS-8 score and glycaemic control among Chinese diabetes patients is largely unknown. Two general out-patient clinics were randomly selected in a district with socio-demographic characteristics representative of the entire Hong Kong population. A consecutive sample of adult type-2 diabetes patients currently taking oral hypoglycaemic agents was included. The glycaemic control was reflected by the level of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) taken within the previous 6 months. Factors associated with poor glycaemic control (HbA1c ≥ 7.0%) were evaluated by linear regression analysis. From 565 eligible Chinese patients with an average age of 63.2 years (SD 9.7) and male proportion of 46.5%, the average HbA1c was 7.1% (SD 1.1%), and 52.0% had poor glycaemic control. The proportion of poor medication adherence (MMAS-8 ≤ 6) was 32.2%. After controlling for socio-demographics, lifestyle, medication use, and health characteristics, the MMAS-8 score was correlated with better glycaemic control (beta -0.095; 95%CI -0.164 to -0.026, P = .007). The MMAS-8 score had a weak and negative correlation with HbA1c level. The instrument should be applied with caution when predicting glycaemic control in clinical practice.
