Blood glucose control in diabetes patients seen in primary health care centers

Objective: To identify factors associated to poor glycemic control among diabetic patients seen at primary health care centers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a sample of 372 diabetic patients attending 32 primary health care centers in southern Brazil. Data on three hierarchical levels of health unit infrastructure, medical care and patient characteristics were collected. Results: The frequency of poor glycemic control was 50.5%. Multivariate analysis (multilevel method) showed that patients with body mass indexes below 27 kg/m(2), patients on oral hypoglycemic agents or insulin, and patients diagnosed as diabetic over five years prior to the inter-view were more likely to present poor glycemic control when compared to their counterparts. Conclusions: Given the hierarchical data structuring, all associations found suggest that factors associated to hyperglycemia are related to patient-level characteristics.