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Number of non-diabetic drugs: a simple comorbidity indicator for diabetes?
P M Whitty1, M P Eccles, I N Steen
1Centre for Health Services Research, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. p.m.whitty@ncl.ac.uk
Introduction:
The number of non-diabetic drugs, taken by a patient with diabetes at any one point in time, has been validated in previous studies as a comorbidity indicator.
Aim:
The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between this comorbidity indicator and health status in people with Type 2 diabetes.
Method:
The analysis presented is from a prospective cohort study of people with Type 2 diabetes before and after commencing insulin therapy, with simultaneous collection of health status, clinical and other comparative data.
Results:
Of the 48 people for whom both health status and drug data were available, 26 (54%) were taking at least one non-diabetic drug and 16 (33%) were taking 3 or more non-diabetic drugs, at the baseline assessment. There were no significant relationships between the number of non-diabetic drugs taken, and age, duration of diabetes or baseline HbA1c measurements. However, there were statistically significant relationships between the number of non-diabetic drugs and health status, in terms of depression and physical function.
Conclusion:
Drug data are routinely recorded in primary care and therefore the number of non-diabetic drugs is a potentially widely available indicator. This indicator could be a useful, simple addition to datasets that not only proxies comorbidity but also relates to patients' physical function and depression status.