Trends of ABC control 2006-2011: a National Survey of Diabetes Health Promotion Institutes in Taiwan

Aims: To understand the trends of ABC control in 5 years interval in Taiwan.

Methods: We compared two waves of nationwide surveys (n=7541 and n=5599, mainly type 2 diabetes) to examine the trends of ABC control across 5 years in accredited Diabetes Health Promotion Institutes in Taiwan.

Results: The percentages of subjects who had HbA1c lower than 7% (A), both SBP and DBP lower than 130/80 mmHg (B), and total cholesterol lower than 160 mg/dl or LDL cholesterol lower than 100mg/dl (C) increased by 6.5% (from 32.4% to 34.5%), 22.0% (from 30.9% to 37.7%), and 57.8% (from 35.3% to 55.7%), respectively, with a resulting total ABC attainment rate from 4.1% to 8.6%. A subgroup of 720 diabetic subjects who participated in both surveys showed the same pattern of changes in B and C but had a slight deterioration of glycemic control. Logistic regression analysis revealed that diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, lower BMI and individuals not requiring insulin were independently associated with attainment of ABC goals in 2006 and 2011. An accountabilities examination revealed that annular tests of HbA1c, BP and lipids were all above 90% in both surveys.

Conclusions: We observed an improvement of individual and overall attainments of ABC goals across 5 years in Taiwan owing to recent implementation of several diabetes care models and initiatives. We anticipate that these improvements will translate into reductions of both macrovascular and microvascular complications.