Frequent outpatient contact and decreasing medication affordability in patients with diabetes from 1997 to 2004.
D espite significant changes in treatment standards for diabetes, there has been little improvement in overall rates of metabolic control (1–5). In recent years, diabetes medical regimen complexity has also increased markedly, with the proportion of U.S. patients taking five or more prescription medicines nearly doubling (from 18 to 30%) from 1994 to 2003 (6). Given the persistent difficulty in achieving ideal metabolic control and the increasing complexity of medical care, further insight into current diabetes outpatient management is required.