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Diabetes

Documentation of eye exam for individuals with diabetes mellitus (ages 18 years or older)

Individuals with a documented eye exam (numerator), among Individuals aged 18-84 years with diabetes (denominator)

Rational:

Diabetes is a complex group of diseases marked by high blood glucose (blood sugar) due to the body’s inability to make or use insulin. Left unmanaged, diabetes can lead to serious micro- and macro-vascular complications, including heart disease, stroke, hypertension, blindness, kidney disease, diseases of the nervous system, amputations; and premature death. In addition to proper diabetes management to control blood glucose, it is essential to monitor the development of complications and provide treatment at their early stages. Diabetic retinopathy is a major cause of blindness in developed countries. The risk for retinopathy is higher in diabetes patients with poor blood glucose control, unbalanced blood pressure and hyperlipidemia; the risk also increases with time elapsed since onset of the disease. Since non-proliferative retinopathy may remain a-symptomatic event in advanced stages of the condition, it is essential to conduct routine eye examinations (which includes thorough examination of the retina). The original quality measure referred to a yearly examination. However, updated guidelines recommend an eye examination every two years in patients with controlled diabetes, whose previous eye examination was normal [1]. Since data regarding the results of eye examinations cannot be retrieved uniformly from the HMOs databases, the updated quality measure uses as a proxy the time elapsed since onset of diabetes: a yearly eye exam for individuals who’ve had diabetes for at least 10 years, and an eye exam once in two years for those who’ve had diabetes for less than 10 years.

Numerator:

Individuals in the denominator with a documented eye exam: at least once during the measurement year for individuals who who’ve had diabetes for at least 10 years; at least once in the 2 previous years for individuals who’ve had diabetes for less than 10 years

Denominator

Individuals aged 18-84 years with diabetes (see "prevalence of diabetes" for definition)

Notes:

None

Notes:

[1] American Diabetes Association (ADA), “Standard of medical care in diabetes - 2017,” Diabetes Care, vol. 40 (sup 1), no. January, pp. s4–s128, 2017.

Results:
Documentation of eye exam by year
Documentation of eye exam by year
Documentation of eye exam by socio-economic position (1-lowest, 4-highest) and sex
Documentation of eye exam by socio-economic position (1-lowest, 4-highest) and sex
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