What is the impact of the community-based diabetes registration and education project on diabetes self-management?

Lee Soon Young
Department of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, Ajou University School of Medicine
Park Eun Jee, Lee Weon Young
Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine ChungAng Univeristy

The rapid increase of the aging population In Korea has accelerated the burden of chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, hypertension and diabetes are precedent diseases for cardiovascular diseases. Many studies have shown that patients with hypertension and/or diabetes can prevent complications from cardiovascular disease through well-managed self-care.
In 2007, the city of Daegu launched a hypertension and diabetes registration and education project and since then nineteen cities in Korea have adopted the project. The present study evaluated the impact of the project by comparing the death rate and the incidence rates of complications of registered patients from four cities with those of the comparison group selected through the propensity score matching in Gyeonggi Province. The results showed that registered patients had a Hazard Ratio (HR) of 0.873 for mortality, a HR of 0.934 for heart disease, and a HR of 0.779 for kidney disease. These findings are statistically significant when compared to non-registered patients (p<0.05). Furthermore, HR in the cerebrovascular disease incidence rate among registered patients was 0.947 which showed a statistically borderline significant trend (p=0.056). In conclusion, it may be suggested that the hypertension and diabetes registration and education project reduced the deaths and the incidence rates in complications. Any following studies should focus on the cost-benefit analysis of the project based on our study and findings.

Keywords: Diabetes, Hypertension, Self care, Effectiveness, Community, Propensity Score Matching