Continuity of care and delivery of diabetes and hypertensive care among regular users of primary care services in Chile: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES

Explore factors related to continuity of care and its association with diabetes and hypertensive care, and disease control.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Data from the Chilean Health National Survey 2009-2010.

PARTICIPANTS

Regular users of primary care services aged 15 or older.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Proportion of hypertensive and diabetic patients with a blood pressure <140/90 mm Hg and HbA1c<7.0% respectively, self-report of diagnosis, treatment and recent foot and ophthalmological exams. Associations between continuity of care, sociodemographic characteristics, and primary and secondary outcomes were explored using logistic regression.

RESULTS

3887 primary care service users were included. 14.7% recognised a usual GP, 82.3% of them knew their name. Continuity of care was positively associated with age >65 years (OR 4.81, 95% CI 3.16 to 7.32), being female (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.34 to 2.05), retired (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.75 to 2.83), obese (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.29 to 2.14), high cardiovascular risk (OR 2.98, 95% CI 2.13 to 4.17) and widowed (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.99), and negatively associated with educational level (8-12 vs <8 years OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.97), smoking (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.82) and physical activity (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.95). Continuity of care was associated with diagnosis awareness (OR 2.83, 95% CI 1.21 to 6.63), pharmacological treatment (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.15 to 3.63) and a recent foot (OR 3.17, 95% CI 1.84 to 5.45) and ophthalmological exam (OR 3.20, 95% CI 1.66 to 6.18) in diabetic but not in hypertensive patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Continuity of care was associated with higher odds of having a recent foot and ophthalmological exam in patients with diabetes, but not with better diseases control. Findings suggest patients with chronic conditions have better continuity of care access.