Diabetes clinic attendance and metabolic control. A pilot pan clinic study.

A descriptive analysis made of a total clinic population (127 patients) followed at a newly formed diabetic clinic from 1982 to 1985 the charts of all 127 patients were analysed for age, duration of diabetes and initial mean and last recorded haemoglobin A1C from 1st January, 1982 to 31st December, 1985. During the period of study, 76 patients continued to attend the clinic regularly and 55 patients were classified as "Non-Attenders" since they had failed to attend the clinic for a period of one year or more prior to a formal recall at the end of 1985. "Attenders" and "non-attenders" appeared to have similar ages and mean haemoglobin A1C's. However, there were more smokers, alcoholics and unemployed in the "non-attending" group. When comparison was made between the initial haemoglobin A1C (on the patient's first attendance at the clinic) and subsequent mean haemoglobin A1C's and final haemoglobin A1C's, it was discovered that the diabetic control of many patients that had attended the clinic regularly had not improved (45 out of 76). On the otherhand, a considerable number of the "non-attending" patients had improved spontaneously without clinic attendance (13 out of 38). The patients that had attended the clinic and not improved tended to be younger, were more often school children, unmarried, unemployed and/or smokers. The results reported in this preliminary paper are insufficient to allow full statistic analysis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)