Adherence to diabetes guidelines for screening, physical activity and medication and onset of complications and death.

Objective: Analyze relationships between adherence to guidelines for diabetes care - regular screening; physical activity; and medication - and diabetes complications and mortality.

Methods: Outcomes were onset of congestive heart failure (CHF), stroke, renal failure, moderate complications of lower extremities, lower-limb amputation, proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), and mortality during follow-up. Participants were persons aged 65+ in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2003 Diabetes Study and had Medicare claims in follow-up period (2004-8).

Results: Adherence to screening recommendations decreased risks of developing CHF (odds ratio (OR)=0.83; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72-0.96), stroke (OR=0.80; 95% CI: 0.68-0.94); renal failure (OR=0. 82; 95% CI: 0.71-0.95); and death (OR=0.86; 95% CI: 0.74-0.99). Adherence to physical activity recommendation reduced risks of stroke (OR=0.64; 95% CI: 0.45-0.90), renal failure (OR=0.71; 95% CI: 0.52-0.97), moderate lower-extremity complications (OR=0.71; 95% CI: 0.51-0.99), having a lower limb amputation (OR=0.31, 95% CI: 0.11-0.85), and death (OR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.41-0.77). Medication adherence was associated with lower risks of PDR (OR=0.35, 95% CI: 0.13-0.93).

Conclusions: Adherence to screening, physical activity and medication guidelines was associated with lower risks of diabetes complications and death. Relative importance of adherence differed among outcome measures.