A Comparative analysis of type 2 diabetes management quality indicators in cancer survivors

This study aimed to assess indicators of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) management, including adequate DM control, and treatment rates, in cancer survivors according to the time of DM diagnosis and to compare them with the DM management indicators of a non-cancer control group.

We used the 2013-2019 data of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for this study. To compare their adequate DM control, and treatment rates, we identified 4918 patients with type 2 DM aged ≥ 30 years and classified them into pre-existing diabetes, pre-existing cancer, and diabetes without cancer groups. Predictors of adequate glycemic control and diabetes treatment were analyzed using binary logistic regression.

Diabetes without cancer group had higher fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c levels and lower adequate glycemic control than did the other two groups. The preexisting cancer group had low treatment rates. After adjusting for age, gender, employment status, and duration of diabetes, the preexisting cancer group had 0.51-fold lower odds of receiving treatment, such as insulin injection or oral diabetes medications, than the other two groups (adjusted odds ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.38-0.66).

Cancer survivors had lower fasting glucose and HbA1c than those with diabetes without cancer. However, as a result of the sub-analysis, the treatment rate of the pre-existing cancer group was significantly lower than that of diabetes without cancer. Based on these results, cancer survivors' care-related healthcare workers should be aware of the need for monitoring blood sugar even in cancer survivors without underlying diabetes mellitus and pay more attention to early detection and active treatment of diabetes.