Minority Patients not Screened Enough for Diabetes

Although people from certain ethnic groups are at high risk for getting diabetes and should be screened, a new University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health study suggests that such screenings are not being done as often as they should be-even for patients with insurance.

Ann Sheehy, MD, MS, a hospitalist and clinical assistant professor of internal medicine at the School of Medicine and Public Health, was lead author on the study, which appeared recently in Diabetes Care.

Researchers gathered data from more than 15,000 patients between 2003 and 2007. All patients were insured and eligible for diabetes screening based on a number of known risk factors: 45 years or older, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, polycystic ovarian syndrome, obesity, heart disease, history of pre-diabetes and ethnicity.

Sheehy and colleagues at the UW-Madison Health Innovation Program found that according to information obtained from doctor visits of those in the study, more than 40 percent of minority patients should have been screened for diabetes based on their ethnic background but were not.

"I believe there is a lack of awareness that minority status is an independent risk factor not only for having diabetes, but for complications of diabetes," Sheehy says. "Minorities get diabetes more often and tend to do worse when they have diabetes. I don't think providers are necessarily aware of this."

More public and provider education is necessary to shed light on the increased risks minority patients face, not only in getting diabetes but also complications of the disease.

"We hope the information learned in this study will help us care for these patients better," she says.