by Yingzhou Liu, Menggang Yu, Jamie N. LaMantia, Jennifer Mason Lobo, Justin J. Boutilier, Yao Liu, Meghan B. Brennan
ObjectiveSpecialty care may improve diabetic foot ulcer outcomes. Medically underserved populations receive less specialty care. We aimed to determine the association between specialty care and ulcer progression, major amputation, or death. If a beneficial association is found, increasing access to specialty care might help advance health equity.
Research design and methodsWe retrospectively analyzed a cohort of Wisconsin and Illinois Medicare patients with diabetic foot ulcers (n = 55,409), stratified by ulcer severity (i.e., early stage, osteomyelitis, or gangrene). Within each stratum, we constructed Kaplan-Meier curves for event-free survival, defining events as: ulcer progression, major amputation, or death. Patients were grouped based on whether they received specialty care from at least one of six disciplines: endocrinology, infectious disease, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, podiatry, and vascular surgery. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models estimated the association between specialty care and event-free survival, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and comorbidities, and stratifying on ulcer severity.
ResultsPatients who received specialty care had longer event-free survival compared to those who did not (log-rank p Conclusions
Specialty care was associated with longer event-free survivals for patients with diabetic foot ulcers. Increased, equitable access to specialty care might improve diabetic foot ulcer outcomes and disparities.
This study aimed to identify different profiles of chronic disease resource utilization among patients with coronary heart disease in Tibet and explore the relationship between these profiles and quality of life.
A cross-sectional study.
Patients with coronary heart disease who were treated in a tertiary hospital in Tibet and its cooperative points from January 2021 to July 2021 were selected as the study participants. All participants completed a general information questionnaire, the Chronic Disease Resource Utilization Questionnaire (CIRS) and the Health Status Survey Short Form (SF-36). Chronic disease resource utilization was profiled, and its relationship to quality of life was explored using hierarchical linear regression.
A total of 382 patients were enrolled in this study. Regarding chronic disease resource utilization, the participants were divided into three latent profiles: ‘Poor utilization group’ (n = 151), ‘Effective utilization group’ (n = 155) and ‘Full utilization group’ (n = 76). Different profiles of chronic disease resource utilization of patients were significantly associated with quality of life (R 2 = .126, p < .001).
Healthcare providers should identify patients with different profiles, define their utilization features of chronic disease resources and adopt targeted interventions to guide them in acquiring enough disease support resources to improve their quality of life.
Understanding different resources using preferences of coronary heart disease patients can help healthcare providers and related sectors to provide other supports based on different profiles of patients, thus enhancing their quality of life.
The study followed the STROBE guideline.
There was no patient or public involvement in the design of the study.