Ethnic and racial minorities less likely to receive A1C diabetes test

Feb 12 2010

Ethnic and racial minorities bear a disproportionate share of America's diabetes epidemic but are significantly less likely than whites to receive a commonly used test to monitor control of blood glucose, according to Washington State University researchers.

In a commentary for the current issue of "The Diabetes Educator," Assistant Professor of Pharmacotherapy Joshua Jon Neumiller and colleagues document how black and Hispanic patients diagnosed with diabetes are two to three times less likely than white patients to receive the A1C test during physician office visits.

The A1C test is a "monitoring cornerstone," providing a retrospective snapshot of a patient's blood-glucose level, says David A. Sclar, a co-author of the commentary and the Boeing distinguished professor of health policy and administration at WSU.

"Ensuring equitable access to care is crucial if we are to reduce the morbidity, mortality and expenditures associated with diabetes," Neumiller said.

The WSU researchers note that diabetes has become a global epidemic projected to affect 48 million Americans by 2050. Hispanics and blacks are more than twice as likely to develop diabetes and suffer the consequences of insufficient monitoring, say the WSU researchers.

Earlier this year, the American Diabetes Association announced guidelines encouraging use of the A1C test in both the monitoring and diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

Copies of the commentary are available at http://tde.sagepub.com/cgi/rapidpdf/0145721709358463v1.

SOURCE Washington State University