Does delay in planned diabetes care influence outcomes for aboriginal Australians? A study of quality in health care

Background To examine the association between delay in planned diabetes care and quality of outcomes. Methods A retrospective analysis of primary care and inpatient records for 2567 Aboriginal patients, with diabetes, living in 49 remote communities in the Northern Territory of Australia. Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between delay from diagnosis to documented diabetes care plan and three outcome measures: mean HbA1c level, most recent blood pressure and number of diabetes-related hospital admissions. Results Compared with no delay (