Prevalence of disease complications and risk factor monitoring amongst diabetes and hypertension patients attending chronic disease management programmes in a South African Township.

Background: South Africa established chronic disease management programmes (CDMPs) called 'clubs' to ensure quality diabetes care. However, the effectiveness of these clubs remains unclear in terms of disease risk factor monitoring and complication prevention.

Aim: We assessed risk factor monitoring, prevalence and determinants of diabetes related complications amongst type-2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension (HTN) patients attending two CDMPs.

Setting: Urban Township in Cape Town, South Africa.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey combined with a 10-year retrospective medical records analysis of adult T2D/HTN patients attending two CDMPs, using a structured survey questionnaire and an audit tool. Statistical Software for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyse risk factor monitoring and calculate prevalence of complications. Potential determinants of complications were explored through logistic regression.

Results: There were 379 patients in the survey, 372 (97.9%) had HTN whilst 159 (41.9%) had T2D and HTN; 361 medical records were reviewed. Blood pressure (87.7%) and weight (86.6%) were the best monitored risk factors. Foot care (0.0% - 3.9%) and eye screening (0.0% - 1.1%) were least monitored. Nearly 22.0% of patients reported one complication, whilst 9.2% reported ≥ 3 complications. Medically recorded complications ranged from 11.1% (1 complication) to 4.2% with ≥ 3 complications. The most common self-reported and medically recorded complications were eye problems (33%) and peripheral neuropathy (16.4%), respectively. Complication occurrence was positively associated with age and female gender and negatively associated with perceived illness control.

Conclusions: Type-2 diabetes and hypertension patients experienced diabetes related complications and inadequate risk factor monitoring despite attending CDMPs. Increased self-management support is recommended to reduce complication occurrence.