Multimorbidity and glycaemia in people with type 2 diabetes attending Australian general practice: a cross-sectional study utilising data from NPS MedicineInsight

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  Principal Investigator
  A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis

  jomn@unimelb.edu.au

  View researcher's webpage

  +61 3 9035 8019

Project Details

More than one million people have type 2 diabetes in Australia, the majority of whom receive their medical care in general practice. There are guidelines available to assist general practitioners (GPs) in making evidence based decisions about management to assist people with diabetes to optimise blood glucose levels and hence reduce their risk about developing complications of this condition which include blindness, chronic kidney disease and neuropathy (nerve pain and loss of sensation). However, diabetes rarely occurs in isolation - almost all people with type 2 diabetes have at least one other chronic condition and approximately 70% have more than one. The result of multimorbidity (ie the co-occurrence of at least two chronic conditions) is additional demands on self-management, increased interaction with the health system and potentially decreased emphasis on the management of diabetes (if there are more urgent health conditions to be managed) leading to poorer outcomes.

The aim of our study is to explore the association of multimorbidity with HbA1c (a measure of blood glucose commonly used as an outcome measure in diabetes) in people with type 2 diabetes through analysis of the NPS MedicineInsight dataset. MedicineInsight collects data from over 500 general practices and 3.5 million patients. This study will contribute to international studies which are exploring the impact of multimorbidity on clinical outcomes, and will have implications for the development of clinical guidelines. It will also contribute to the ongoing development of the use of MedicineInsight data for research.

Researchers

• A/Prof Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis, Principal investigator
• A/Prof John Furler, Co-researcher
• Jason Chiang, PhD candidate
• Sharmala Thuraisingam, Statistician

Collaborators

• Barbara Nicholl, Institute of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow
• Bhautesh Jan, Institute of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow
• Frances Mair, Institute of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow

Funding

RACGP Family Medical Care Education and Research Grant