Evaluation of the chronic patient care from the patients' perspective in primary care

Aim: To determine chronic illness care of patients with hypertension and/or diabetes from patient perspective admitted to primary care. Method: Participants of our cross-sectional study were hypertension and/or diabetes patients who applied Family Health Centers in Balcova, Izmir. It was carried out in July-August 2016 and included totally 768 patients, 384 Diabetes Mellitus and 384 Hypertension. Questionnaire containing sociodemographic characteristics and Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care-Patient Form(PACIC) was administered by face-to-face interview. Turkish PACIC consists of 20 items, 5 subscales. SPSS 22.0 used, percent, mean, anova and t tests were done. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: All participants mean age was 62.3±9.99. Of the patients 61.1%(n:469) were female, 38.9%(n:299) were male. 19.8%(n:152) were smoking. Among hypertension patients 50%(n:191) stated they didn't do diet-exercise and this was 45%(n:172) of diabetics. In last year %32.2(n:247) of patients didn't apply to any other except Family Health Center. Mean score of Chronic Illness Care Scale was 2.41±0.84. There wasn't difference between hypertensive and diabetic patients' scores(p>0.05). When subscales evaluated, higher score was found for diabetics in "follow-up/coordination". Males' score was higher than women and also in subscales "patient participation" and "follow-up/coordination". As age increased and educational status decreased, scores decreased. There was no significant difference between health center applies, economic status, and smoking(p> 0.05). Conclusion: Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care scores were low in hypertension and diabetes patients. Monitoring of chronic diseases in primary care is of great importance. There is a need to improve chronic disease management in primary care.