Rapid A 1 c Availability Improves Clinical Decision-Making in an Urban Primary Care Clinic
RESULTS — We recruited 597 subjects. Patients were 79% female and 96% African American, with average age of 61 years, duration of diabetes 10 years, BMI 33 kg/m, and A1c 8.5%. The rapid and routine groups had similar clinical demographics. Rapid A1c availability resulted in more frequent intensification of therapy when A1c was 7.0% at the baseline visit (51 vs. 32% of patients, P 0.01), particularly when A1c was 8.0% and/or random glucose was in the 8.4–14.4 mmol/l range (151–250 mg/dl). In 275 patients with two follow-up visits, A1c fell significantly in the rapid group (from 8.4 to 8.1%, P 0.04) but not in the routine group (from 8.1 to 8.0%, P 0.31).