Pay for performance program reduces treatment needed diabetic retinopathy - a nationwide matched cohort study in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Pay-for-Performance programs have shown improvement in indicators monitoring adequacy and target achievement in diabetic care. However, less is known regarding the impact of this program on the occurrence and long-term effects of diabetic retinopathy. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of pay-for-performance program on the development of treatment needed for diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes patients. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study with a matching design using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 to 2012. The outcome was defined as the treatment needed diabetic retinopathy. We matched Pay-for-Performance and non-Pay-for-Performance groups for age, gender, year diabetes was diagnosed and study enrollment, and duration of follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 9311 patients entered the study cohort, of whom 2157 were registered in the Pay-for-Performance group and 7154 matched in the non-Pay-for-Performance group. The incidence of treatment needed diabetic retinopathy was not significantly different in two groups. However, the incidence of treatment needed diabetic retinopathy was significantly different if restricted the non-Pay-for-Performance group who had at least 1 eye examination or optical coherence tomography within 1 year (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.64-0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Pay-for-Performance is valuable in preventing the development of treatment needed diabetic retinopathy, which could be attributed to the routine eye examination required in the Pay-for-Performance program. We could improve our diabetic care by promoting eye health education and patient awareness on the importance of regular examinations.

Evaluation of insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function indexes obtained from minimal model analysis of a meal tolerance test.

Modeling analysis of glucose, insulin, and C-peptide following a meal has been proposed as a means to estimate insulin sensitivity (S(i)) and beta-cell function from a single test. We compared the model-derived meal indexes with analogous indexes obtained from an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) and hyperglycemic clamp (HGC) in 17 nondiabetic subjects (14 men, 3 women, aged 50 +/- 2 years [mean +/- SE], BMI 25.0 +/- 0.7 kg/m(2)). S(i) estimated from the meal was correlated with S(i) estimated from the IVGTT and the HGC (r = 0.59 and 0.76, respectively; P < 0.01 for both) but was approximately 2.3 and 1.4 times higher (P < 0.05 for both). The meal-derived estimate of the beta-cell's response to a steady-state change in glucose (static secretion index) was correlated with the HGC second-phase insulin response (r = 0.69; P = 0.002), but the estimated rate-of-change component (dynamic secretion index) was not correlated with first-phase insulin release from either the HGC or IVGTT. Indexes of beta-cell function obtained from the meal were significantly higher than those obtained from the HGC. In conclusion, insulin sensitivity and beta-cell indexes derived from a meal are not analogous to those from the clamp or IVGTT. Further work is needed before these indexes can be routinely used in clinical and epidemiological studies.