Factors associated with the utilization of community-based diabetes management care: A cross-sectional study in Shandong Province, China

BACKGROUND: Community-based diabetes management is known to be an important strategy for global diabetes control. In China, community-based diabetes management care, including regular blood glucose tests and guidance on medicine use, dietary control, and physical exercise provided by primary health institutions (PHIs), as one of the key contents of the national essential public health services (EPHS), was implemented since 2009 when the new round of health system reform was initiated. This study aimed to investigate the utilization of community-based diabetes management care services, and explore the factors influencing utilization from both patients’ and providers’ points of view. METHODS: In total, 2520 type-2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients registered for EPHS were selected from 63 PHIs in eight counties of Shandong province, China, using multi-stage stratified sampling. Of those, 2166 patients (response rate: 85.4%) completed face-to-face structured questionnaires on their utilization of community-based diabetes management care services. Further, 63 PHIs were surveyed on diabetes care delivery, and 444 primary healthcare providers were purposively sampled from those PHIs to measure their knowledge of diabetes management care delivery, using a self-developed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the delivery and utilization of diabetes management care services. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to analyze the factors associated with patients’ utilization of diabetes management services. RESULTS: All 63 PHIs reported that all the required four diabetes management services were provided through EPHS. However, only 49.6% of the patients reported they fully used these services, with no statistically significant difference between urban and rural patients. Patients who had higher knowledge of diabetes and better self-efficacy in controlling the condition, were more likely to fully utilize diabetes management care. A larger number of PHI health staff per 1000 population was associated with better utilization of care. CONCLUSION: Although community-based diabetes management services are well available to Chinese DM patients under the framework of EPHS, the actual utilization of diabetes management services among the patients was poor. The size of the PHI workforce, patients’ knowledge and self-efficacy in controlling diabetes, were important predictors of utilization, and could be enhanced to improve control of diabetes.