The Impact of Comorbid Chronic Conditions on Diabetes Care

Effective diabetes management often presents enormous challenges. Not surprisingly, clinicians and patients alike can be overwhelmed by the need to address comorbid chronic conditions in addition to patients’ diabetes-specific treatment goals. Ignoring concurrent disease management, however, can lead to ineffective control of diabetes-specific risk factors and may miss opportunities to improve patients’ functioning, quality of life, and mortality risk. Other chronic conditions are common among people with diabetes and account for much of the morbidity these patients face. According to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, most adults with diabetes have at least one comorbid chronic disease (1) and as many as…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• HS
  Health Services Research and Development
• UO
  University of Michigan
• QE
  Quality Enhancement Research Initiative