The association between the number of office visits and the control of cardiovascular risk factors in Iranian patients with type2 diabetes

INTRODUCTION Patients with diabetes type2 should receive regular medical care. We aimed at investigating the association between the number of office visits and improvement of their cardiovascular-risk factors. METHODS Four hundred and ninety patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were followed in a tertiary center were enrolled in this longitudinal study. The minimum follow up period was 3 years. Patient data were extracted from manual or electronic records. RESULTS Sixty- four percent of cases were females, the mean age was 61 ± 12.45 years, and the mean disease duration was 6.5 ±7.9 years. The mean number of office visits was 2.69 ± 0.91 per year. Comparing the means of each of the cardio-vascular risk factors showed a significant decrease in all cardiovascular risk factors, while there was a significant weight gain over the same period. The association between changes in these parameters and the number of patients' office visits per year were not statistically significant. In patients with disease duration less than 5 years, each additional office visits by one visit per year was associated with a decrease in serum total cholesterol by 6.94 mg/dl. The mean number of office visits per year in patients older than 60 years old was more than younger patient (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION The decrease in the mean values of the investigated parameters was statistically significant between the first year of follow up and the following years. Yet, these changes were not related to the mean number of patients' office visits per year, which may reflect the poor compliance of patients to treatment regardless of the number of their office visits.