Development of a minimal set of prescribing quality indicators for diabetes management on a general practice level
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety (2011)Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pds.2248
Development of a minimal set of prescribing quality indicators fordiabetes management on a general practice level
Liana Martirosyan1*, Flora M. Haaijer-Ruskamp1, Jozé Braspenning2 and Petra Denig1
1 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands2 Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands
Objective To identify the relevant prescribing quality domains of type 2 diabetes mellitus care as a basis for the selection of a minimal setof prescribing quality indicators from a set of previously validated indicators. Methods We used the principal factor analysis to identify the underlying dimensions or domains of prescribing quality for 76 generalpractitioners participating to the Groningen Initiative to Analyse Type 2 Diabetes Treatment project in the Netherlands. From a set of 10prescribing quality indicators covering various aspects of cardiovascular and metabolic management, we selected a subset of indicators withthe highest loading within each identified domain. Next, we evaluated the effect of using this subset on the quintile ranking of practices ontheir prescribing quality scores. Results We identified five prescribing quality domains in our data set: two assessing initiation of pharmacotherapy for different risk factorsin diabetic patients, two on stepwise intensification of treatment, and one on treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease. A compositescore comprising the indicators selected from each of the domains showed good agreement with the composite score comprising allindicators with 82% of general practitioners either not changing their position or shifting their ranking by only one quintile. Conclusions We showed that a minimal set of prescribing quality indicators for type 2 diabetes mellitus care should not just focus on themanagement of different clinical risk factors but also reflect different steps of treatment intensification. The results of our study are relevant forstakeholders when selecting quality indicators to assess the quality of prescribing in diabetic patients. Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—quality health care indicator; type 2 diabetes mellitus; quality of healthcare assessment; drug prescribing
Received 14 March 2011; Revised 3 August 2011; Accepted 5 August 2011
Stakeholders using quality information, such as
health care providers, policy makers, and payers, have
The demand for accountability in health care and the
to deal with a large number of quality indicators be-
need for improving the quality of provided care have
cause of the growing number of different quality-
resulted in the development of a large number of qual-
reporting programs. The number of quality indicators
ity indicators for an increasing number of diseases.1,2
included in national sets is varying from country to
Quality measurement and reporting have the potential
country. For example, the number of quality measures
to improve the quality of care and reduce health care
included in Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Infor-
costs but can also cause administrative and financial
mation Set 2010 set in the USA is about half of the
burden of collecting and reporting quality information.
number of indicators included in Quality and Outcome
To minimize this burden, it is important to seek strate-
Framework in the UK.6,7 Although both sets are com-
gies to reduce the number of quality indicators used.3–5
prehensive, there is lack of understanding on what the
This article describes the process and results of selecting
number of indicators in such sets should be. Besides
a minimal set of prescribing quality indicators (PQIs) for
such comprehensive programs, many sets of quality
treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
indicators exist focusing on specific diseases, forexample, diabetes management.8–14 The availabilityof various quality indicators creates a possibility to
*Correspondence to: L. Martirosyan, The Netherlands Institute for Health
choose the most appropriate indicators for speci
Services Research (NIVEL), PO Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands.
user aims. However, this also introduces the challenge
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
of selecting the indicators while maintaining the com-
The inclusion criterion for our study was having eligi-
ble patients for all tested indicators.
Diabetes is a chronic condition with increasing prev-
alence in the world. Although lifestyle modification
plays an important role in treatment of T2DM patients,
All participating GPs used electronic health records
most of them eventually require pharmacotherapy
and prescribe electronically, which means that the data
because of progressive nature of the disease.15,16
set includes full information regarding the prescribed
Currently, to evaluate and improve the quality of drug
medication. We collected data from the Groningen
treatment in T2DM patients, a large number of PQIs
Initiative to Analyse Type 2 diabetes Treatment data-
base, which contains information from the electronic
Combining measures to a composite score is one
health records of all T2DM patients registered in the
way to reduce the number of indicators included in
participating practices.24 In addition, survey information
quality assessment. Composite scores provide an
is collected yearly regarding the practice characteristics,
advantage of quick overview of the provided quality
including practice size and supporting personnel. The
of care in a certain area.18 However, they do not
patient data set for our study included information on
reduce the burden related to collecting and reporting
the demographics, prescribed medication, comorbidities,
much data on an individual indicator level.
physical examinations and laboratory measurements as
Several approaches are available to make a selection
of relevant prescribing indicators from a larger set. One can start choosing indicators on the basis of stake-
holders’ specific preferences and areas of interest.4,19It is possible to further narrow down the choice of
Previously, a set of 14 indicators for assessing
indicators on the basis of clinimetric characteristics,
prescribing quality in T2DM was developed on the
such as the grade of evidence supporting the indica-
basis of several national and international diabetes
tors, the concurrent and predictive validity, and the
guidelines.14 This set of indicators was selected after
availability of data,17,20 or discard all indicators that
assessment in two panels of experts on face and con-
do not show room for improvement.21 Another ap-
tent validity. In short, the indicators cover adequate
proach to systematically minimize the number of qual-
and timely treatment of relevant cardiovascular, renal,
ity indicators is the use of data reduction techniques,
and metabolic risk factors as well as prescribing of
such as factor analysis, allowing to uncover hidden
metformin in overweight patients. The PQIs were
calculated by dividing the number of eligible patients
The aim of this study is to identify relevant prescrib-
who were prescribed the recommended treatment by
ing quality domains of T2DM management that can
the total number of eligible patients as specified by
serve a basis for selecting a minimal set of PQIs to
the PQIs, and the percentages were obtained by multi-
be applied on a general practice level.
plying the received ratio by 100. The operationaldefinitions of the PQIs are described elsewhere.14
Two indicators were discarded from this original setbecause of a lack of eligible patients at the general
practice level, that is, one focusing on “prescription
In the Netherlands, patients are registered with a single
of statins in patients younger than 40 with a history
general practitioner (GP) who has a gatekeeper role in
of cardiovascular disease (CVD)” and one on
coordinating their medical care. Most patients with
“prescription of metformin in incident T2DM patients
T2DM are managed in general practice. Many GPs
who are overweight.” In addition, we modified one
have a diabetes nurse or assistant who will conduct
indicator focusing on “prescription of statins in all
the routine three-monthly examinations of patients.
diabetic patients with increased cardiovascular risk”
In our study region, in the north of the Netherlands,
to “prescription of statins in patients with dyslipidemia”
there is also a regional diabetes facility that offers sup-
to reflect recommendations of the Dutch diabetes guide-
port to GPs by providing thrice a month and yearly di-
lines regarding prescription of statins for the study
abetes follow-up examination of patients. In all cases,
time.25 The validated set of the indicators included three
the GP is responsible for the patients’ management
PQIs focusing on the management of albuminuria with
and for prescribing their medication. All GPs partici-
a renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitor in
pating in a regional program for monitoring diabetes
mutually exclusive subpopulations of T2DM patients,
care by the end of 2007 were eligible for inclusion.23
that is, patients without hypertension or with incident
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, (2011)
quality indicators for diabetes management
hypertension or with prevalent hypertension. Because
Next, we selected the PQIs with the highest loading
only 17 GPs had eligible patients for all three indica-
within each factor to represent that specific domain of
tors, we combined them to one indicator to increase
prescribing quality. To evaluate the effect of selecting
the number of eligible patients per practice for the
this subset of PQIs on prescribing quality assessment
at general practice level, we assessed changes in theranking of GPs using all or only this subset of indica-
tors. For this, we calculated two composite scores foreach GP averaging scores of individual indicators
Descriptive statistics are presented for practice and
and ranked GPs on these scores. The first composite
patient characteristics in the Table 1. We calculated
score included all 10 initial PQIs, and the second one
the scores of PQIs and their 95% confidence intervals
included PQIs selected using the factor analysis. To
(midP) using an individual GP as unit of analysis. An
compare shifts in ranking, the rankings on both com-
exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify
posite scores were divided in quintiles. We considered
the number of possible underlying dimensions or
a rank shift of 0–1 quintile as satisfactory agreement.
domains. We used principal factor analysis to model
A shift of two quintiles was considered as intermediate
the correlation between indicators and to show the
agreement, whereas more than two quintiles were
extent to which they reflect the same underlying
concepts. We evaluated models with different numbers
Finally, we explored the association of practice
of factors and selected the model with best conceptual
characteristics, that is, practice size and availability
coherence, total variance explained, and communali-
of supporting personnel (such as diabetes nurse or
ties of the PQIs. The communality of each indicator,
diabetes assistant), with the scores of PQIs using linear
that is, the sum of the squared factor loadings for all
regression. The Statistical Package for the Social
factors for a given variable, shows the amount of
Sciences for Windows (version 16.0; SPSS Inc.,
variance in a given PQI explained by the selected
Chicago, IL) was used for all analyses.
factors: PQI loading across the same identified domainsas for the total population. We repeated the analysis in
a subpopulation of GPs that had at least 70 T2DMpatients to assess whether population size would influ-
From the GPs participating to the Groningen Initiative
ence the observed domain structure and factor loadings.
to Analyse Type 2 diabetes Treatment project at the
This cutoff excludes 16 practices in the lowest practice
end of 2007, we included 76 (70%) practices that
had eligible patients for all tested indicators coveringa total of 7944 T2DM patients. The characteristics of
General characteristics of GPs and patient population
the included practices and their patient population aresummarized in the Table 1. The scores of the PQIs
calculated on a general practice level varied from
General practice characteristics (n = 76)
11% (SE 18) to 79% (SE 9) (Table 2).
We carried out the principal factor analysis with
two-, three-, four-, and five-factor solutions and
No. T2DM patients visiting diabetes facility
considered the five-factor model as being the best
Percentage of all T2DM patients per practice
interpretable and conceptually meaningful. The factors
Percentage of practices with diabetes nurse or assistant
explained a substantial part of the total variance with a
cumulative variance of 16% (one factor), 30% (two
factors), 43% (three factors), 56% (four factors),
and 67% (five factors) (Table 3). No PQI was ex-
cluded from the analysis because all indicators
loaded across the factors with correlation coeffi-
cients greater than 0.5. Communalities were 0.6 or
The first two factors focused on the general first-step
drug treatment recommendations for majority of T2DM
*Body mass index: weight in kilograms divided by height in square meters
first factor named “starting treatment I”
History of CVD included history of myocardial infarction, ischemic heart
disease, transient cerebral ischemia, stroke/cerebrovascular accident, and
atherosclerosis/peripheral vascular disease as registered by GPs.
most patients, such as prescription of metformin, statin,
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, (2011)
Mean general practice scores of PQIs for T2DM management (n = 76)
T2DM patients with systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and prescribed any antihypertensive drug
T2DM patients prescribed a second antihypertensive drug from a different class if systolic
blood pressure remained ≥ 140 mmHg with first class of antihypertensive drug
T2DM patients with albuminuria prescribed RAAS-inhibitor
PQIs merged to PQI 3 (%)T2DM patients without hypertension with albuminuria prescribed RAAS-inhibitor
T2DM incident for hypertension patients with albuminuria prescribed RAAS-inhibitor
T2DM prevalent for hypertension patients with albuminuria prescribed a multiple drug regime
T2DM patients with a history of ischemic heart disease or myocardial infarction prescribed b-blocker
Nonincident T2DM patients with HbA1c >7 % and prescribed any oral antihyperglycemic agent or insulin
Nonincident T2DM patients not receiving insulin prescribed a second oral antihyperglycemic drug from a
different class if with one oral antihyperglycemic drug HbA1c remained >7%
T2DM patients who are prescribed insulin if with combination of two oral drugs HbA1c remained >7%
Overweight prevalent T2DM patients prescribed a multiple drug regime containing metformin
T2DM patients with LDL ≥ 2.5 mmol/L or TC ≥ 4.5 mmol/L who are prescribed a statin
T2DM patients with a history of CVD prescribed acetyl salicylic acid
RAAS inhibitor, renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitor; HbA1c, glycosilated hemoglobin; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; TC, total cholesterol.
and any antihypertensive medication (Table 3). The
on prescribing quality assessment, we ranked GPs
second factor, “starting treatment II,” consisted of two
using composite score based on the initial 10 PQIs
other PQIs focusing on the treatment initiation of
and the composite score on the selected 5 PQIs,
T2DM patients with specific risk factors, that is, prescrib-
that is, PQIs 1, 4. 5, 6, 7. The comparison of these
ing glucose lowering medication in patients with elevated
composite scores showed that 81.5% of GPs had
HbA1c levels and prescribing renin–angiotensin system
an acceptable shift by either remaining within the
inhibitors in T2DM patients with albuminuria. The third
same quintile or shifting only by one quintile,
identified factor reflected “treatment of CVD” in T2DM
10.5% had an intermediate shift by two quintiles,
patients and comprised the two PQIs from our set of
and only 8% had poor agreement because they
indicators concerning patients with a history of CVD,
shifted by more than two quintiles (Table 4).
focusing on prescription of beta blockers and acetyl
We found no significant associations between
salicylic acid. Finally, there were two factors focusing
practice size, having a diabetes nurse or diabetes as-
on next steps of treatment intensification. The factor
sistant, or making use of the diabetes facility and the
named “step 1 treatment intensification” included only
composite scores of the PQIs. Also regarding the in-
one PQI focusing on adding a second drug in patients
dividual PQI scores, no significant or meaningful
with hyperglycemia despite monotherapy with oral
associations were found with these general practice
glucose lowering medication. The “step 2 treatment
intensification” factor comprised a PQI focusing onadding a second class antihypertensive medication if
one class was not sufficient to control the blood pressureand a PQI on prescribing insulin in patients with uncon-
Using factor analysis, we identified five prescribing
trolled HbA1c levels despite oral glucose-lowering treat-
quality domains for T2DM within our data set: two
ment. Additional analysis limited to GPs that had at
on initiation of treatment, two on treatment intensifica-
least 70 T2DM patients showed similar results with
tion steps, and one on the treatment of T2DM patients
PQI loading across the same identified domains as for
with known CVD. We selected a subset of five indica-
tors, representing each of these domains. On a general
Within each domain, we selected the indicator with
practice level, the prescribing quality assessed with
the highest loading as the PQIs that could represent
this subset adequately reflected the overall prescribing
that domain, that is, PQI 1 for “starting treatment I,”
quality using the initial set of 10 indicators.
PQI 5 for “starting treatment II,” PQI 4 for “treatment
One might expect that the PQIs focusing on the
of CVD,” PQI 6 for “step 1 treatment intensification,”
management of the same risk factor, for example,
and PQI 7 for “step 2 treatment intensification”
hypertension or hyperglycemia, would correlate highly
(Table 3). To assess the effect of this selection
and would therefore constitute one domain. Our study,
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, (2011)
quality indicators for diabetes management
however, showed that the PQIs that loaded on the samefactor often represented the management of different
clinical risk factors related to diabetes. Previous studieshave shown that the relationship between prescribing
indicators is often unpredictable with very differentprescribing indicators correlating to a high degree.26
Instead of correlations within a risk factor, we observed
seemed to be linked to the different steps of treatmentintensity. This probably occurred because the prescrib-
ing behavior of GPs is influenced by clinical triggers
rather the medical history of individual patients. Recent
studies have shown that medication burden and
presence of comorbidities can have similar effects on
the start and intensification of treatment for the
management of hyperglycemia, hypertension, and
Our selection of indicators was based on the highest
factor loadings within each identified domain. The
reduction we propose would result in a set of 5 instead
of 10 indicators. Although this may seem a relative
small reduction, it can reduce the data noise and
administrative burden associated with reporting on
large indicator sets for many practices. In addition,
the use of a composite score on the basis of a small
set of indicators can increase the comparability of
quality measures across different general practices.
The indicators comprising the selected minimal set are
supported by the highest level of scientific evidence,14
are accepted by the professionals in the field worldwide,
and are operationally feasible.17 It has been shown that
use of quality indicators contributes to improved quality
of provided care and patient outcomes.29,30 In particular,
indicators focusing on adequate and timely drug
treatment were found to be predictive of better
In our study, we have used complete individual
level data on medication prescriptions made by GPs
for all their T2DM patients. Although we had a large
data set comprising electronic health records of 76
GPs with more than 7944 T2DM patients, our results
may not be generalized to other settings. Prescribing
patterns of primary care doctors in different countries
which may vary both across and within countries.34,35
data sets and countries is recommended.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to look at
the domains of prescribing the quality of T2DM care.
Our study showed that factor analysis can be
functional for minimizing the number of indicators.
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, (2011)
Agreement between the composite scores per general practice*
Additional supporting information may be found in
Quintile 1 Quintile 2 Quintile 3 Quintile 4 Quinile 5
Operational definitions for calculation of prescribing
quality indicators (PQI) for type 2 diabetes mellitus
Please Note: Wiley‐Blackwell are not responsible
for the content or functionality of any supportingmaterials supplied by the authors. Any queries (other
than missing material) should be directed to the
corresponding author for the article.
*Rows represent the quintile distribution of GPs based on a composite
score of initial 10 PQIs; columns represent the quintile distribution ofGPs based on a composite score of the selected five PQIs. Dark gray cells
represent GPs with satisfactory agreement between two composite pre-
scribing scores; intermediate gray cells represent GPs with intermediate
perspective from US researchers. Int J Qual Health Care 2000 Aug 1; 12(4):
agreement between two composite prescribing scores; light gray cells rep-
resent GPs with poor agreement between two composite prescribing
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