A survey on the treatment patterns of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in urban China

Objective To investigate the treatment patterns of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in urban community of Chinese big cities. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out in 15 hospitals of Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guanghou, 1 530 T2DM patients were recruited continuously into this study. Participants were face-to-face interviewed by trained interviewers using a self-developed structured questionnaire, and all participants in the study were given an opportunity to test glycosylated hemoglobin free of charge. Results Of subjects, most only used oral antidiabetic drugs (OAD) (999/1 525, 65.5%), receiving lifestyle intervention only was the least (23/1 525, 1.5%), and a substantial proportion used both OAD and insulin (375/1 525, 24.6%). Among subjects with OAD, more than half of them took metformin (783/1 374, 57.0%), and the number of OADs significantly increased as the duration of diabetes. In combination use of OADs, it was most common to have the two kinds of OAD at the same time (634/1 374, 46.1%). Combination of metformin and sulfonylurea were the most frequently used drugs. Conclusions The OAD was popular under clinical guidelines among patients with T2DM in urban community of big Chinese cities. Treatment pattern should be adjusted with duration of T2DM.