Diabetics Short Changed in Nursing Homes
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Nursing home residents who have diabetes may not be getting the kind of care they need to prevent deadly complications of the disease. Researchers who studied about 100 residents in 11 different homes in Ohio and West Virginia found even when most patients were monitored for things like blood sugar and high blood pressure, control was achieved in only a fraction of the patients. For example, while 98 percent of patients were being monitored for blood sugar, just 38 percent met blood sugar goals. While 94 percent were being monitored for high blood pressure, only 55 percent met goals. advertisement
The findings were even worse for high cholesterol -- even though controlling high cholesterol is second only to controlling high blood pressure in reducing heart disease risk for diabetics. Researchers found just 31 percent of patients were receiving yearly cholesterol checks, and among those, only 58 percent had acceptable cholesterol levels. The researchers believe these results point to a pressing need to develop practice guidelines governing diabetes care in nursing homes -- something that's currently lacking. "Some things are done extremely well in nursing homes -- for instance, foot exams and influenza vaccinations," study author Jay Shubrook, D.O., was quoted as saying. "Others are not done as well." He and his colleagues have developed a set of treatment protocols for diabetes care in nursing homes and now plan to test them out in another study. Finding better ways to ensure diabetics get the care they need is critical to improving care and reducing health care costs associated with the disease today and will be even more so in the future. Statistics suggest diabetes will increase by a whopping 336 percent by 2050. This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/. SOURCE: Diabetes Care, published online May 25, 2007
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