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Original Research|Articles in Press

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with type 2 diabetes care and clinical parameters in a primary care setting in Ontario, Canada: A cross-sectional study

Open AccessPublished:January 09, 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjd.2023.01.003
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with type 2 diabetes care and clinical parameters in a primary care setting in Ontario, Canada: A cross-sectional study
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      Abstract

      Introduction

      Diabetes requires ongoing monitoring and care to prevent long term adverse health outcomes. In Canada, quarantine restrictions were put into place to address the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Primary care diabetes clinics limited their in-person services and were advised to manage type 2 diabetes (T2D) through virtual visits and reduce the frequency of routine diabetes-related lab tests and screening.

      Methods

      This retrospective cross-sectional study used de-identified patient records from a primary care electronic medical records (EMR) database in Ontario, Canada to identify people with T2D who had at least one healthcare touchpoint between March 1, 2018 and February 28, 2021.
      Outcomes were described on a monthly or yearly basis: 1) number of people with primary care visits (in-person vs virtual); 2) number of people with referrals; 3) number of people with each of the vital/lab measures; and 4) results of the vital/lab measures.

      Results

      A total of 16,845 with T2D were included. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the COVID-19 period saw a 16.8% reduction in the T2D population utilizing any primary care and an increase of 330.4% in the number of people with ≥1 virtual visit. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, fewer people had vital/lab measures in the pandemic period. However, among the people with the test results available, the average values for all tests were similar in the pre- and pandemic period.

      Conclusion

      Further research is important to understand the impact of the reduction of in-person clinical care on the entire population with T2D.

      Key words

      Article info

      Publication history

      Accepted: January 2, 2023
      Received: November 8, 2022

      Publication stage

      In Press Journal Pre-Proof

      Footnotes

      Key messages:

      The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on diabetes care in the US, Canada and the UK, including on diagnostics and ongoing treatment

      Our study corroborates previous studies and adds to the growing literature on the impact of the pandemic restrictions on routine diabetes care.

      Author disclosures: Alice Cheng, Stewart Harris, Iris Krawchenko, Ronald Goldenberg and Richard Tytus received advisory fees from IQVIA Solutions Canada Inc for contributions to the design and interpretation of the study but received no compensation for development of the manuscript. Jina Hahn and Aiden Liu are employees of Novo Nordisk Canada Inc. Brad Millson and Shane Golden are employed by IQVIA Solutions Canada Inc to support this Novo Nordisk Canada Inc sponsored study.

      Identification

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjd.2023.01.003

      Copyright

      © 2023 Canadian Diabetes Association.

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