Differential Effects of Comorbidity on Antihypertensive and Glucose-Regulating Treatment in Diabetes Mellitus - A Cohort Study

作者:Voorham Jaco*; Haaijer Ruskamp Flora M; Wolffenbuttel Bruce H R; de Zeeuw Dick; Stolk Ronald P; Denig Petra
来源:PLos One, 2012, 7(6): e38707.
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0038707

摘要

Background: Comorbidity is often mentioned as interfering with %26quot;optimal%26quot; treatment decisions in diabetes care. It is suggested that diabetes-related comorbidity will increase adequate treatment, whereas diabetes-unrelated comorbidity may decrease this process of care. We hypothesized that these effects differ according to expected priority of the conditions. %26lt;br%26gt;Methods: We evaluated the relationship between comorbidity and treatment intensification in a study of 11,248 type 2 diabetes patients using the GIANTT (Groningen Initiative to Analyse type 2 diabetes Treatment) database. We formed a cohort of patients with a systolic blood pressure %26gt;= 140 mmHg (6,820 hypertensive diabetics), and a cohort of patients with an HbA1c %26gt;= 7% (3,589 hyperglycemic diabetics) in 2007. We differentiated comorbidity by diabetes-related or unrelated conditions and by priority. High priority conditions include conditions that are life-interfering, incident or requiring new medication treatment. We performed Cox regression analyses to assess association with treatment intensification, defined as dose increase, start, or addition of drugs. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: In both the hypertensive and hyperglycemic cohort, only patients with incident diabetes-related comorbidity had a higher chance of treatment intensification (HR 4.48, 2.33-8.62 (p%26lt;0.001) for hypertensives; HR 2.37, 1.09-5.17 (p = 0.030) for hyperglycemics). Intensification of hypertension treatment was less likely when a new glucose-regulating drug was prescribed (HR 0.24, 0.06-0.97 (p = 0.046)). None of the prevalent or unrelated comorbidity was significantly associated with treatment intensification. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Diabetes-related comorbidity induced better risk factor treatment only for incident cases, implying that appropriate care is provided more often when complications occur. Diabetes-unrelated comorbidity did not affect hypertension or hyperglycemia management, even when it was incident or life-interfering. Thus, the observed %26quot;undertreatment%26quot; in diabetes care cannot be explained by constraints caused by such comorbidity.

  • 出版日期2012-6-5