Evidence for validity of a national physician and patient-reported, cross-sectional survey in China and UK: the Disease Specific Programme

Objective: Diabetes represents a significant challenge for Chinese healthcare providers. Healthcare decision-making is generally based on many data sources, including randomised controlled and real-world studies; however, good-quality data from Chinese diabetes patients are scarce. We performed an initial validation to assess the representativeness of one source of real-world data-the Diabetes Adelphi Disease Specific Programme (DSP) in China. Setting: China, UK. Participants: The Chinese DSP included 2060 patients with previously diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) sampled by 200 physicians. The reference Chinese population comprised 238 639 patients with previously diagnosed T2DM. The UK DSP contained 1481 patients with T2DM sampled by 125 physicians; the reference UK population comprised 289 patients with diabetes. Primary and secondary outcomes: The primary outcome was comparison of unweighted China DSP and reference data for sex, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), patients achieving glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA(1c))<7%, total cholesterol, coronary heart disease and dyslipidaemia. The secondary outcome was comparison of weighted UK DSP and reference data for BMI, BP, mean HbA(1c), total cholesterol, smoking and insulin status. Results: Comparison of unweighted China DSP and reference data revealed statistical equivalence for BMI, systolic BP, proportion of patients achieving HbA(1c) <7%, total cholesterol, coronary heart disease and dyslipidaemia. Sex, age, diabetes duration, diastolic BP and mean HbA(1c) level were not equivalent, although differences were generally small. Weighting of data did not substantially affect the results. A similar pattern was observed for UK data. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that the methodology used for the China and UK parts of the Diabetes DSP produces representative samples that are comparable with other independent sources of patient treatment outcomes data, which may ultimately inform public health decision-making. Although this method could be used in other countries, the current validation applies to UK and China. Further research is required for other countries.