Abstract
Objective
The aim of this research study was to ascertain the awareness of Maltese family doctors
to the prevalence and significance of impaired glucose regulation and early diagnosis
of type 2 diabetes and whether practices were influenced by employment status, post-graduate
training in diabetes or years since graduation.
Methods
A specially constructed questionnaire was distributed by mail to all the 298 family
doctors listed as Specialists in Family Medicine in the Maltese Medical Council register.
Participants had to be practising family medicine in Malta. Results were analysed
using SPSS 20.0 aiming for a significance criterion of 0.05 and a power of 80%.
Results
Valid replies were received from 154 GPs (51.7%). 93.2% claimed to offer their patients
some form of screening. Screening levels reached up to 95.9% in the presence of specific
risk factors (e.g. high previous HbA1c levels) but fell to between 46.2% and 58.7%
in patients over 50, the physically inactive and those who suffer from polycystic
ovarian syndrome. Screening using capillary glucose is widespread (70.8%) as opposed
to the oral glucose tolerance test (23.4%). Results also show a high use of urinalysis
in screening (53.2%) and a paradoxical lack of use of HbA1c in screening by young
doctors and by those with recent extra training in diabetes.
Conclusions
The need for a structured screening programme in Malta and its viability need to be
evaluated by further studies. Educational support to GPs together with logistic support
for GPs needs to be improved.
Abbreviations:
IDF (International Diabetes Federation), IFG (Impaired Fasting Glucose), IGT (impaired glucose tolerance), FCWB (fasting capillary whole blood), RCWB (random capillary whole blood), FVP (fasting venous plasma), RVP (random venous plasma), HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin), OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 21, 2014
Accepted:
December 25,
2013
Received in revised form:
December 9,
2013
Received:
September 19,
2013
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
