Quality and costs of diabetes treatment in primary health care – Results based on the diabetes registry of Paimio–Sauvo Health Centre

Background This study describes the implementation and the costs of diabetes treatment and their changes in primary health care during the recent years.

Methods The study is based on the data from the Patient Information Registry of the federation of municipalities of Paimio–Sauvo. The registry includes, amongst other things, indicators of the quality of diabetes treatment during 2006–2018, and the costs of treatment during 2016–2018. To monitor how well the goals of diabetes care were achieved during the 13-year period, a linear multivariate analysis was used.

Results Blood glucose levels showed a statistically significant improvement during the 13-year period studied. Achieving good glycaemic control varied significantly with the duration of the illness. In contrast, LDL-cholesterol levels increased statistically significantly, particularly in women with a diabetes duration of less than 5 years. The average direct costs of diabetes care per patient increased markedly during the last years. In type 1 diabetics, the largest expenditure (overall 56%) was due to diabetes care supplies.

Conclusions The local diabetes registry proved to be an excellent tool to monitor the quality and the costs of diabetes care from the municipal perspective in the long term.