Trace analysis of therapeutic inertia and subsequent hemoglobin A1c outcomes in a 2-year cohort study.

OBJECTIVE Our understanding of therapeutic inertia in diabetes care is incomplete in terms of an assessment across a nationwide population. The key objectives of this investigation were to measure therapeutic inertia and link this phenomenon to the important surrogate outcome of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) control in a nationwide cohort. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study over 18 months. Laboratory and prescription data were collected for 41,948 patients (women: 53.1%) with diabetes who had at least two HbA1c results. The association between treatment intensity and glycemic control, using the change in HbA1c during the observation period, and whether the HbA1c outcome was greater than 9% were examined. RESULTS Among the patients who exhibited a secondary HbA1c result exceeding 9%, 8,630 (78.26%) had undergone intensified therapy at the time of the index HbA1c measurement, and among these patients, the incidence ratio of the last HbA1c outcome exceeding 9% after 6 to 18 months was 0.779-fold (95% Cl 0.728 to 0.834) greater than those who had not received intensified therapy (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS After tracking patient data for a particular period, we found that patients with diabetes who received intensified therapy achieved surrogate outcomes of HbA1c control that were more favorable.