Continuity of care is good for elderly people with diabetes: retrospective cohort study of mortality and hospitalization.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between continuity of family physician care and all-cause mortality and acute hospitalizations in older people with diabetes. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study of administrative health databases. Continuity of family physician care for elderly patients newly diagnosed with diabetes was estimated by 3 continuity indexes using physician claims data. The relationship of continuity of family physician care to mortality and acute hospitalizations was investigated. SETTING The province of Newfoundland and Labrador. PARTICIPANTS A total of 305 family practice patients 65 years of age or older with diabetes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Death rate and hospitalization rate during a 3-year period. RESULTS Overall, continuity of family physician care was high. In the 3 years examined, the higher-continuity group had lower rates of hospitalization (53.5% vs 68.2%) and death (8.6% vs 18.5%) than the lower-continuity group. CONCLUSION The findings suggest an association between higher continuity of family physician care and reductions in likelihood of death and hospitalizations in older people with diabetes.