MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Saeid Shahraz, MD, PhD Heller School of Social Policy and Management Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous researchers had shown a significant improvement in diabetes control in the US between the years 1998 and 2010. We wanted to show if the betterment in diabetes control continued after then. As previously, we measured hemoglobin A1C that shows the extent to which blood glucose level is under control. Our main finding was that this upward improving trend plateaued for years after 2007 up to 2014, the last year for which we had data. We examined both genders, white and non-white populations as well as three age groups; young, middle age, and elderly population and results were the same: no change. Overall, in 2007, 14% of patients with diabetes showed a poor diabetes control (Hemoglobin A1C more than 9%) ; in 2014, 15% of patients with diabetes fell within the category of poor diabetes control. 55% of the patients had a Good control of diabetes (Hemoglobin A1C less than 7%) in 2007; this measure was 54% in 2014. (more…)