Prediabetes Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices at an Academic Family Medicine Practice

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Clinical Medicine
• Endocrinology

Background:

• Lifestyle change programs are effective for prediabetes management but are underutilized.
• Understanding clinician perspectives is key to improving referrals for these programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess clinician knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding prediabetes.
• To evaluate prediabetes screening, diagnosis, and treatment in an academic family medicine clinic.

Main Methods:

• Survey of 31 clinicians on prediabetes knowledge and attitudes.
• Retrospective electronic health record review of 15,520 adult patients (2015-2017).
• Assessment of prediabetes screening, diagnosis, and treatment coverage.

Main Results:

• High clinician agreement on the importance of prediabetes screening and diagnosis.
• Only 45.2% of clinicians were familiar with the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).
• High screening rates (75.9%), but only 50.7% of diagnosed prediabetes patients had the diagnosis recorded. No patients were referred to a DPP.

Conclusions:

• Clinician attitudes are positive, but knowledge gaps (especially regarding DPPs) limit prediabetes care.
• Low awareness of DPPs contributes to the underutilization of lifestyle change programs.
• Implementation strategies are needed to address barriers and improve prediabetes management and referrals.