INCIPIENT DIABETES IN PRIMARY CARE: PATIENT'S KNOWLEDGE ABOUT CARDIOVASCULAR RISK (DIALOGO STUDY): PP.20.268

Objective: To assess the knowledge about the health condition and the global cardiovascular (CV) risk level of patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) in the previous year in Primary Care (PC) settings. Design and Method: Epidemiologic, cross-sectional, nationwide, multi-center study. Results: In this study 139 physicians have recruited 673 patients, out of which 481 (71.5%) were diabetic. The 84% of this group considered that they suffer from some disease, although 39% thought their health status is good and almost 50% that it is acceptable. Only 10.6% declared that their health condition is bad. In spite of being diabetic and that more than 75% had been informed about their CV risk by physicians and nurses, 38.2% did not know which it is. 27.7% of the rest of these subjects declared to have moderate CV risk, 23% high and only 4.6% very high. However, physicians stratified as follow: 27% with moderate CV risk, 45% with high and 20.1% with very high risk. Curiously, 7.8% of the diabetic patients were considered to have low CV risk. In regard to CV risk factors, 54% asserted to have normal blood pressure (BP) values and 37.8% to be hypertensive; 43.8% considered their cholesterol levels as normal; almost half of this population recognized not knowing their TG levels; and, although 94.6% declared to have blood sugar problems, 11.2% were not aware of being diabetic. On the other hand according clinical charts, 53% were described as hypertensive and 20.3% with normal-high BP; more than half of diabetic patients had cholesterol increased, 49% LDLc elevated and 42% high levels of TG. Three quarters and almost 70% of these subjects were being treated for hypertension and dyslipemia, respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study show a poor awareness about disease and global risk in early diabetic patient when compared with their clinical charts information.