Original articleLongitudinal rates of annual eye examinations of persons with diabetes and chronic eye diseases☆
Section snippets
Methods
The study population consisted of individuals aged 65 years or older at the time of entry in the study and who were enrolled in the National Long-Term Care Survey (NLTCS). The NLTCS is a random sample of US adults over the age of 65 years. The sample includes institutionalized adults, enabling us to generalize results to the entire population aged 65 years and older. Detailed information about the NLTCS is available at http://www.cds.duke.edu/NLTCS/index.htm. We made use of the NLTCS to draw
Results
Rates of visits for subjects with diagnosed diabetes per 15-month period were generally between 50% and 60% (Table 3). Rates tended to be somewhat higher for subjects observed for more time periods than for those observed for fewer periods. Rates tended to rise over time for persons observed for 6 or 7 periods.
For subjects diagnosed with glaucoma, most visit rates were in the 70% to 90% range per 15-month period. As for diabetes, visit rates were higher, on average, for subjects observed for
Discussion
Longitudinal rates of continuous care demonstrate substantial “gaps” in care among Medicare beneficiaries for all three chronic eye conditions. Overall, over half of the subjects with at least 1 of the 3 study conditions had at least one 15-month gap in eye examinations. However, subjects with less severe forms of disease were more likely to have gaps and to have more gaps. Although these patterns generalize to all 3 groups, we also found some differences. Gaps were more likely to occur among
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by National Institute on Aging grant 1RO1-AG-17473, “Visual Impairment, Treatment, and Effects on the Elderly.”
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Manuscript no. 220581.
Financial support: National Institute on Aging grant 1RO1-AG-17473, “Visual Impairment, Treatment, and Effects on the Elderly.”
Proprietary interest: none.