PubMed ID: 38113202
Author(s): Liu Y, Yu M, LaMantia JN, Mason Lobo J, Boutilier JJ, Liu Y, Brennan MB. Associations between specialty care and improved outcomes among patients with diabetic foot ulcers. PLoS One. 2023 Dec 19;18(12):e0294813. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294813. eCollection 2023. PMID 38113202
Journal: Plo S One, Volume 18, Issue 12, 2023
OBJECTIVE Specialty care may improve diabetic foot ulcer outcomes. Medically underserved populations receive less specialty care. We aimed to determine the association between specialty care and ulcer progression, major amputation, or death. If a beneficial association is found, increasing access to specialty care might help advance health equity.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of Wisconsin and Illinois Medicare patients with diabetic foot ulcers (n = 55,409), stratified by ulcer severity (i.e., early stage, osteomyelitis, or gangrene). Within each stratum, we constructed Kaplan-Meier curves for event-free survival, defining events as: ulcer progression, major amputation, or death. Patients were grouped based on whether they received specialty care from at least one of six disciplines: endocrinology, infectious disease, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, podiatry, and vascular surgery. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models estimated the association between specialty care and event-free survival, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and comorbidities, and stratifying on ulcer severity.
RESULTS Patients who received specialty care had longer event-free survival compared to those who did not (log-rank p<0.001 for all ulcer severity strata). After adjusting, receipt of specialty care, compared to never, remained associated with improved outcomes for all ulcer severities (early stage adjusted hazard ratio 0.34, 95% CI 0.33-0.35, p<0.001; osteomyelitis aHR 0.22, 95% CI 0.20-0.23, p<0.001; gangrene aHR 0.22, 95% CI 0.20-0.24, p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS Specialty care was associated with longer event-free survivals for patients with diabetic foot ulcers. Increased, equitable access to specialty care might improve diabetic foot ulcer outcomes and disparities.
Copyright: © 2023 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.