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Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey
BACKGROUND: Continuity of care is particularly important for patients with chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Continuity is shown to reduce overall health service utilization among people with diabetes, however, evidence about how it relates to the utilization of outpatient specialis...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9595526/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36282805 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276054 |
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author | Hansen, Anne Helen Johansen, May-Lill |
author_facet | Hansen, Anne Helen Johansen, May-Lill |
author_sort | Hansen, Anne Helen |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Continuity of care is particularly important for patients with chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Continuity is shown to reduce overall health service utilization among people with diabetes, however, evidence about how it relates to the utilization of outpatient specialist services in Norway is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate continuity of GP care for people with T2D, and its association with the use of outpatient specialist health care services. METHODS: We used e-mail questionnaire data obtained from members of The Norwegian Diabetes Association in 2018. Eligible for analyses were 494 respondents with T2D and at least one GP visit during the previous year. By descriptive statistics and logistic regressions, we studied usual provider continuity (UPC) and duration of the patient-GP relationship and associations of these measures with somatic outpatient specialist visits. Analyses were adjusted for gender, age, education, self-rated health, and diabetes duration. RESULTS: Mean age was 62.6 years and mean UPC was 0.85 (CI 0.83–0.87). Two thirds of the sample (66.0%) had made all visits to the regular GP during the previous year (full continuity). Among these, 48.1% had made one or more specialist visits during the previous year, compared to 65.2% among those without full continuity. The probability of outpatient specialist visits was significantly lower among participants with full continuity, compared to those without full continuity (Odds Ratio 0.53, Confidence Interval 0.35–0.80). The probability of visiting outpatient specialist services was not associated with duration of the patient-GP relationship. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that continuity of care, as measured by Usual Provider Continuity, is high and associated with reduced use of somatic outpatient specialist services in people with T2D in Norway. Continuity and its benefits will become increasingly important as the number of older people with diabetes and other chronic diseases increases. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9595526 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95955262022-10-26 Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey Hansen, Anne Helen Johansen, May-Lill PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Continuity of care is particularly important for patients with chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Continuity is shown to reduce overall health service utilization among people with diabetes, however, evidence about how it relates to the utilization of outpatient specialist services in Norway is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate continuity of GP care for people with T2D, and its association with the use of outpatient specialist health care services. METHODS: We used e-mail questionnaire data obtained from members of The Norwegian Diabetes Association in 2018. Eligible for analyses were 494 respondents with T2D and at least one GP visit during the previous year. By descriptive statistics and logistic regressions, we studied usual provider continuity (UPC) and duration of the patient-GP relationship and associations of these measures with somatic outpatient specialist visits. Analyses were adjusted for gender, age, education, self-rated health, and diabetes duration. RESULTS: Mean age was 62.6 years and mean UPC was 0.85 (CI 0.83–0.87). Two thirds of the sample (66.0%) had made all visits to the regular GP during the previous year (full continuity). Among these, 48.1% had made one or more specialist visits during the previous year, compared to 65.2% among those without full continuity. The probability of outpatient specialist visits was significantly lower among participants with full continuity, compared to those without full continuity (Odds Ratio 0.53, Confidence Interval 0.35–0.80). The probability of visiting outpatient specialist services was not associated with duration of the patient-GP relationship. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that continuity of care, as measured by Usual Provider Continuity, is high and associated with reduced use of somatic outpatient specialist services in people with T2D in Norway. Continuity and its benefits will become increasingly important as the number of older people with diabetes and other chronic diseases increases. Public Library of Science 2022-10-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9595526/ /pubmed/36282805 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276054 Text en © 2022 Hansen, Johansen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Hansen, Anne Helen Johansen, May-Lill Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey |
title | Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey |
title_full | Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey |
title_fullStr | Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey |
title_full_unstemmed | Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey |
title_short | Personal continuity of GP care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional survey |
title_sort | personal continuity of gp care and outpatient specialist visits in people with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional survey |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9595526/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36282805 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276054 |
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