Relationship of patient request fulfillment to compliance, glycemic control, and other health care outcomes in insulin-dependent diabetes

Abstract

Patients' perceptions of the extent to which their health care needs have been met may affect compliance with prescribed health behaviors and related health outcomes. The authors examined the relationships of "patient request fulfillment" to patient compliance, glycemic control, and several other health care outcomes in 51 adult outpatients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. On average, patients retrospectively cited 4.5 long-term requests, of which over three-fourths were fulfilled. Fulfillment of these requests was significantly associated with patient satisfaction, perceived health status, fewer insulin reactions, and greater insulin injection time reliability (p less than 0.05), but not with several other measures of compliance. Higher patient request fulfillment at single visits was correlated, as hypothesized, with subsequent reduction in glycosylated hemoglobin, but this association was not statistically significant. These results suggest that patient request fulfillment is associated with several aspects of health behavior and health status in adults with insulin-dependent diabetes. Further studies are needed to confirm these observations and determine whether strategies to enhance patient request fulfillment can enhance health care outcomes.