Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

AIM:

To describe the quality and organization of diabetes care in primary healthcare in Sweden regarding resources and ways of working.

METHOD:

A questionnaire was used to collect data from all 921 primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) in Sweden. Of these, 74.3% (n=684) responded to the questionnaire covering list size of the PHCCs, number of diabetic patients, personnel resources and ways of working.

RESULTS:

The median list size reported from the PHCCs was 9,000 patients, 294 of whom were diabetic patients. The majority (72%) of PHCCs had diabetes-responsible general practitioners (GPs) and almost all (97%) had diabetes specialist nurses (DSNs) with some degree of postgraduate education in diabetes. The PHCCs reported that they used regional/local diabetes guidelines (93%), were engaged in call-recall diabetic reviews by GP(s) (66%) and DSN(s) (89%), checked that patients had participated in the reviews by GP(s) (69%) and DSN(s) (78%), arranged group education programmes (23%) and reported data to a National Diabetes Register (82%).

CONCLUSIONS:

The presence of diabetes-responsible GP(s) and DSN(s) who use guidelines may contribute to good and equal quality of care. It is, however, necessary to improve the call-recall system and there is an urgent need for all diabetic patients to receive patient education.

Background and aim The present study formed part of a larger study examining the potential long-term effects of glycaemic control and treatment satisfaction in people with Type1 diabetes mellitus who changed from multiple daily insulin injections to insulin pump therapy. Individuals (n=46) who made the transition between May 1999 and February 2004 participated. The aim of the study was to describe experiences of the impact of insulin pump therapy in adults with Type1 diabetes mellitus after >5years' use of an insulin pump. Method During spring 2009, 16 of the individuals were interviewed through a narrative approach on the effects of insulin pump therapy on daily life. The interviews were analysed using content analysis. Results The overarching theme revealed that insulin pump therapy was experienced as both a shackle and a lifeline. Six sub-themes emerged: subjected vs. empowered; dependent vs. autonomous; vulnerable vs. strengthened; routinized vs. flexible; burdened vs. relieved; and stigmatized vs. normalized. Conclusions Users of insulin pump therapy have different views about and experience of having used the technical equipment over years. Both positive and negative views emerged. However, it is difficult to identify any general trends that cover all views and can predict which individuals will be able to manage pump therapy in the best way. Even so, the sub-themes and theme that emerged could be used by physicians and diabetes specialist nurses when counselling and planning educational programmes aimed at supporting self-management among people with insulin pump treatment.

BACKGROUND:

Although stable angina pectoris often carries a favourable prognosis, it remains important to identify patients with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) complications. Many new markers of disease activity and prognosis have been described. We evaluated whether common and easily accessible markers in everyday care provide sufficient prognostic information.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

The Angina Pectoris Prognosis Study in Stockholm treated 809 patients (248 women) with stable angina pectoris with metoprolol or verapamil double blind during a median follow-up of 3·4 years, with a registry-based extended follow-up after 9·1 years. Clinical and mechanistic variables, including lipids and glucose, renal function, ambulatory and exercise-induced ischaemia, heart rate variability, cardiac and vascular ultrasonography, and psychosocial variables were included in an integrated analysis. Main outcome measures were nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) and CV death combined.

RESULTS:

In all, 139 patients (18 women) suffered a main outcome. Independent predictive variables were (odds ratio [95% confidence intervals]), age (1·04 per year [1·00;1·08], P = 0·041), female sex (0·33 [0·16;0·69], P = 0·001), fasting blood glucose (1.29 per mM [1.14; 1.46], P < 0·001), serum creatinine (1·02 per μM [1·00;1·03], P < 0·001) and leucocyte counts (1·21 per 10⁶ cells/L [1·06;1·40], P = 0·008). Smoking habits, lipids and hypertension or a previous MI provided limited additional information. Impaired fasting glucose was as predictive as manifest diabetes and interacted adversely with serum creatinine. Sexual problems were predictive among men.

CONCLUSIONS:

Easily accessible clinical and demographic variables provide a good risk prediction in stable angina pectoris. Impaired glucose tolerance and an elevated serum creatinine are particularly important.

Background: Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (ePROs) have potential to improve health outcomes and healthcare. The development of health-technology applications, such as ePROs, should include the potential users and be theoretically grounded. Swedish Youth Health Clinics (YHCs) offer primarily sexual and psychological healthcare for young people aged 12 to 25 years old. Young people in healthcare settings are considered a vulnerable group. The development of a collection of Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) in an Electronic Health Report Form (eHRF) for identifying health and health-related problems in young people, was preceded by a qualitative interview study, exploring young people's views on using an eHRF at YHCs and which questions about health an eHRF should contain. The aim of the current study was to develop and evaluate the usability of an eHRF prototype for identifying health and health-related problems in young people visiting YHCs.

Methods: This study used a participatory design. During the development, an expert panel consisting of eight researchers and one Information Technology worker, participated. A wide literature search was performed to find PROs to construct an eHRF prototype to cover health areas. A mixed methods usability evaluation included 14 participants (young people, healthcare professionals, and an expert panel).

Results: The development resulted in an eHRF prototype, containing ten reliable and valid health questionnaires addressing mental-, physical-, and sexual health and social support, a self-efficacy question, and background questions, in total 74 items. The interviews in the usability evaluation resulted in three categories describing the usability of the eHRF: 'Captures the overall health of young people but needs clarification', 'Fun, easy, and optional and will keep young people's interest', and 'Potential contribution to improve the health consultation'. The quantitative results support the usability of the eHRF for YHCs.

Conclusions: The participatory approach contributed to development of the eHRF prototype to cover health areas adapted for the target population. The usability evaluation showed that the eHRF was usable and had the potential for self-reflection and contributions to cooperation between young people and healthcare professionals during the health consultation.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim was to investigate if family members of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) increased knowledge about CHF through a group-based multi-professional educational programme and whether there was an effect on patients' health care utilization.

METHODS:

Family members (n=128) were randomly assigned to intervention-group (IG) who received CHF education programme or control-group (CG) who received information according to hospital routines. Programme effects were evaluated with CHF knowledge questionnaire, patient readmissions and number of days hospitalised during 18 months.

RESULTS:

Knowledge about CHF increased in both groups, significantly higher in IG at second assessment (IG 16±1.9 vs. CG 14.9±2.1, p=0.006), and knowledge maintained at third assessment. In IG 17 patients were re-admitted at least once and 28 patients in CG due to CHF (p=0.085). There were no differences in frequency of readmissions or number of days hospitalised.

CONCLUSION:

A group-based multi-professional education programme increased family members' knowledge about CHF. Despite this, effect on patient's health care utilization could not be seen during follow-up period.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:

We suggest that CHF education programmes for family members should be provided at clinics, with information preferably repeated 2-3 times during a period of six months to maintain knowledge level.

Background: The Diabetes Questionnaire is a digital patient-reported outcome and experience measure for adults living with diabetes. The Diabetes Questionnaire is intended for use in routine clinical visits in diabetes care and to enable patient perspectives to be integrated into the Swedish National Diabetes Register. The Diabetes Questionnaire was developed on the basis of patients’ perspectives, and evidence for its measurement qualities has been demonstrated. Patients receive an invitation to complete the questionnaire before clinical visits, and the patient and health care professional (HCP) can discuss the findings, which are instantly displayed during the visit. Implementation processes for new tools in routine care need to be studied to understand the influence of contextual factors, the support needed, and how patients and HCPs experience clinical use.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe patients’ and HCPs’ experiences of initiating the use of the digital Diabetes Questionnaire as a clinical tool in routine diabetes care, supported by a structured implementation strategy involving initial education, local facilitators, and regular follow-ups.

Methods: In this qualitative study, semistructured focus group discussions were conducted 12 months after the use of the Diabetes Questionnaire was initiated. Participants were diabetes specialist nurses and physicians (20 participants in 4 groups) at hospital-based outpatient clinics or primary health care clinics and adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (15 participants in 4 groups). The audiotaped transcripts were analyzed using inductive qualitative content analysis.

Results: The results revealed 2 main categories that integrated patients’ and HCPs’ experiences, which together formed an overarching theme: While implementation demands new approaches, the Diabetes Questionnaire provides a broader perspective. The first main category (The Diabetes Questionnaire supports person-centered clinical visits) comprised comments expressing that the digital Diabetes Questionnaire can initiate and encourage reflection in preparation for clinical visits, bring important topics to light during clinical visits, and broaden the scope of discussion by providing additional information. The second main category (The process of initiating the implementation of the Diabetes Questionnaire) comprised comments that described differences in engagement among HCPs and their managers, challenges of establishing new routines, experiences of support during implementation, thoughts about the Diabetes Questionnaire, need to change local administrative routines, and opportunities and concerns for continued use.

Conclusions: The Diabetes Questionnaire can broaden the scope of health data in routine diabetes care. While implementation demands new approaches, patients and HCPs saw potential positive impacts of using the questionnaire at both the individual and group levels. Our results can inform further development of implementation strategies to support the clinical use of the questionnaire.

Objective

To describe how patient education is arranged in Swedish primary healthcare (PHC) and to assess whether the type of patient education and individual goal setting have an impact on diabetic patients’ possibilities of reaching national treatment targets.

Design

A Swedish national survey.

Setting

Swedish PHC.

Subjects

Data from 485 primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) and 91 637 diabetic patients reported by the PHCCs to the National Diabetes Register in 2006.

Main outcome measures

Description of how patient education is arranged, HbA_1c, body mass index, cholesterol, blood pressure, and physical activity.

Results

Of the PHCCs that reported how they performed the individual counselling, 50% reported checklist-driven counselling and 8% individualized counselling based on patients’ needs. A total of 105 PHCCs reported that they arranged group education. Of these, 67% used pre-planned programmes and 9% individualized the programme to the patients’ needs. The majority of PHCCs (96%) reported that they set individual goals (HbA_1c, blood pressure, lipids, and lifestyle). A minority of the PHCCs (27%) reported that the patients were involved in the final decision concerning their goals. Individual goal-setting facilitated patients’ possibilities of reaching treatment targets. Goal-setting, list size of PHCCs, and personnel resources explained a variance of 2.1–5.7%. Neither individual counselling (checklist-driven or individualized to patients’ needs) nor group education had an impact on patients’ possibilities of reaching the targets.

Conclusion

The current study indicates that improvement is needed in patient education in PHC to facilitate diabetic patients’ possibilities of reaching national treatment targets.