EVALUATING THE ROLE OF HYPOGLYCEMIA & COMORBID ILLNESS ON DIABETES MANAGEMENT BEHAVIORS

Abstract

Over the recent years, the incidence of diabetes has significantly increased. Use of preventive services and treatment with oral antidiabetic drugs (OAD) has remained cornerstone in the management of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Despite strong evidence that treating diabetes using these disease management strategies decreases morbidity, mortality and complications, glycemic control as well as other diabetes related outcomes remain unsatisfactory. The prevalence of diabetes in the United States has grown vastly in proportion over the last few years with the American Diabets Association estimating that 9.3% of the population suffered from diabetes in the year 2012. These estimates are expected to increase in the future with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that 366 billion people (4.4%) will have diabetes. Diabetes places a greater clinical as well as economic burden on ix Dedication I would like to dedicate my dissertation work to my family, especially my parents Vijay and Anuradha Rege, my brother Dada, my late grandmother Kamala Bai Rege, my grand parents Manohar and Indumati Nadkarni, my aunt Jaya Mavshi as well as Shalini Singh, who have all loved me endlessly and have been on my side all these years.