Abstract
Purpose :
To determine if poor compliance with diabetic eye screening is an indicator of overall poor diabetes control in patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (PwT1DM). There are 2103 transitional age group (12-26 years) PwT1DM registered with the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme Northern Ireland (DESPNI). We reviewed diabetes control in those patients with perfect attendance at DESPNI compared to those with extremely poor attendance.
Methods :
Transitional age patient records within the DESPNI were reviewed for DNAs (Did Not Attend) and non-response to invitation (NR). The number of times these patients DNA’d or had NR was recorded on a database. Patients were regarded as having ‘poor compliance’ to DESPNI, if they had at least 4 episodes of NR or DNA’d twice, ‘good compliance’ was defined as no NR and no DNAs. Such poor compliance was noted in 64 individuals and 64 age-matched individuals with good compliance were randomly selected for comparison. HbA1c values and number of results in the last year were reviewed for all 128 individuals. Patients who were pregnant were excluded. The results were compared in age groups, 12-15, 16-19, 20-23 and 24-26.
Results :
No patients with poor compliance were found in the age group of 12-15 years old therefore this group was excluded from final analysis. Shown in the table below are the mean HbA1c and the mean frequency of number of HbA1c tests each year in each of the other age groups. The results show a statistically and clinically significant difference between mean HbA1c values in all age groups: those with poor compliance having worse control. Those in the youngest age group of 16-19 have the largest difference. Those with poor compliance also had a lower frequency of HbA1c tests annually. Comparison between groups showed that there was a clinically significant difference in diabetes control between those with good and poor compliance in the age groups 16-19 and 20-23. These values can be seen in the table below.
Conclusions :
The results of this study show that there is an association between poor compliance with DRSP screening and blood sugar control in the transitional patient phase.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.