Outcomes of Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Receiving New Services from Diabetes Clinic, Sai Ngam Hospital during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

According to the Ministry of Public Health’s policy to reduce the spread of Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) and to ensure patients’ safety from overcrowded clients and long wait time at the out-patient department, new service measures were introduced in Sai Ngam hospital. The purpose of this descriptive research study was to evaluate the hospital’s new measure by comparing patients’ glycemic control data between before and after implementing the new measures to reduce the risks from COVID-19 at the diabetes out-patient clinic. The retrospective data including parameters of glycemic control (fasting blood sugar-FBS and Hemoglobin A1C-HbA1c) and personal data (age, gender, marital status and educational level) from 320 randomly selected diabetes patients were drawn from the hospital’s database between October 1, 2019 and December 30, 2020. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations (SD) and inferential statistics using dependent sample t-tests, chi-square tests and McNemar tests with p-value at 0.05. The results showed that most of the samples were females (67.8%) with an average age of 54.74 ± 10.75 years old. Average FBS from before and after the new service measures significantly increased from 149.55 ± 45.41 mg/dL to 156.69 ± 46.27 mg/dL (p = 0.007). Average HbA1c also significantly increased from 67 ± 2.3% to 7.94 ± 2.17% after the use of new service measures (p = 0.039). I can be concluded that, the glycemic control among patients in the study group got worse after using the new services during COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among the elderly 61-70 years old. The results from this study stressed the needs for service guideline for diabetes patients that factored in personal information and self-care behaviors.