The effect of seeing a family physician on the level of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients

BACKGROUND Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in diabetic patients reflects the average blood glucose level, and will not be affected by variability in blood glucose in short time. Regular care of patients by medical staff could effectively control glycemic situation. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of medical care by general physicians on glycemic control by measuring of HbA1c. METHODS In order to assess the effectiveness of National program for diabetes control and prevention in Iran, we compare HbA1c, Fasting blood glucose (FBS), systolic and diastolic blood pressure in two groups of diabetic patients diagnosed in this program. The first group consisted of patients who received at least four visits by General Physician (GP) during one year after the diagnosis, and second group were patients who did not visited by GPs or received 1-3 visits. RESULTS After one year, 24.1% of patients did not receive any care, while 57.9% examined at least once a year. Among visited patients, 23.5% received 1-3 times medical care and 23.5% received four or more visits. HbA1c was significantly lowered in patients with appropriate care (four and more) compared with the non cared patients and patients with less than four cares. CONCLUSION Appropriate number of visits for each patient by GPs is an effective glycemic control in diabetic patients. Although this study provides a framework for medical care in diabetes, how to take care of these patients depends on specific situation of each patient and should be determined for each of them individually.