Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Diabetes

Clinical inertia—a barrier to effective management of T2DM

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 9, pages 635–636 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

In routine primary care, clinicians are slow to intensify glycaemic management in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), despite access to an increasing number of therapeutic resources. This so-called clinical inertia is troubling and could explain why we are failing to meet targets for diabetes control in many patients.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Wild, S., Roglic, G., Green, A., Sicree, R. & King, H. Global prevalence of diabetes: estimates for the year 2000 and projections for 2030. Diabetes Care 27, 1047–1053 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K. & Flegal, K. M. Prevalence of obesity in the United States, 2009–2010. NCHS Data Brief. 82, 1–8 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Khunti, K., Wolden, M. L., Thorsted, B. L., Andersen, M. & Davies, M. J. Clinical inertia in people with type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study of more than 80,000 people. Diabetes Care http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc13–0331.

  4. Tahrani, A., Bailey, C., Del Prato, S. & Barnett, A. Management of type 2 diabetes: new and future developments in treatment. Lancet 378, 182–197 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Holman, R. R., Paul, S. K., Bethel, M. A., Mathews, D. R. & Neil, H. A. 10-year follow-up of intensive glucose control in type 2 diabetes. N. Engl. J. Med. 359, 1577–1589 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Shah, B. R., Hux, J. E., Laupacis, A., Zinman, B. & van Walraven, C. Clinical inertia in response to inadequate glycemic control: do specialists differ from primary physicians? Diabetes Care 28, 600–606 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Inzucchi, S. E. et al. Management of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes: a patient-centered approach. Position statement of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Diabetologia 55, 1577–1596 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Canadian Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Committee. Canadian Diabetes Association 2013 clinical practice guidelines for the prevention and management of diabetes in Canada. Can. J. Diabetes 37 (Suppl. 1), S1–S212 (2013).

  9. Zinman, B. Initial combination therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus: is it ready for prime time? Am. J. Med. 124 (Suppl. 1), S19–S34 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Miccoli, R., Penno, G. & Del Prato, S. Multidrug treatment of type 2 diabetes: a challenge for compliance. Diabetes Care 34 (Suppl. 2), S231–S235 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mount Sinai Hospital Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes, Lebovic Building, 60 Murray Street, Toronto, ON, M5T 3L9, Canada

    Julie A. Lovshin & Bernard Zinman

Authors
  1. Julie A. Lovshin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bernard Zinman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernard Zinman.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lovshin, J., Zinman, B. Clinical inertia—a barrier to effective management of T2DM. Nat Rev Endocrinol 9, 635–636 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2013.185

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2013.185

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing