Hemoglobin A1c Testing and Amputation Rates in Black, Hispanic, and White Medicare Patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Major (above-knee or below-knee) amputation is a complication of diabetes and is seen more common among black and Hispanic patients. While amputation rates have declined for patients with diabetes in the last decade, it remains unknown if these improvements have equitably extended across racial groups and if measures of diabetic care, such as hemoglobin A1c testing, are associated with these improvements. We set out to characterize secular changes in amputation rates among black, Hispanic, and white patients, and to determine associations between hemoglobin A1c testing and amputation risk.

Methods

We identified 11,942,840 Medicare patients (55% female) with diabetes over the age of 65 years between 2002 and 2012 and followed them for a mean of 6.6 years. Of these,

SUBMITTER: Suckow BD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5064433 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature