To strengthen the care capacity of primary facilities, China has vigorously promoted the construction of a hierarchical medical system and a family doctor care system. In July 2017, a family doctor care plan was launched in an urban district of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and two family doctor contracting service models were adopted, one provided a basic-service package and the other a paid-service package. In order to evaluate the effect of different models on diabetic patients, this study conducted a real world study based on the district healthcare database.

Diabetic patients who contracted family doctor services January 2018 to January 2019 as reported in the database were enrolled in the paid- or basic-service group. Propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted to balance the distribution of covariances between the groups. The results of the first and last examination of glycosylated hemoglobin, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the groups were compared by independent sample t-test and chi-square test.

Included were 4,871 patients in basic-service and 394 patients in paid-service. In both groups the total control rates of blood pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin and LDL-C at the last physical examination were 43.67, 79.28 and 51.11 percent, respectively, a significant increase from pre-test. The combined control rates of HbAlc, LDL-C and blood pressure in the basic- and paid-service group were 20.76% and 22.37%, respectively. After PSM, there was no significant difference between the groups.

Up to now, there is no significant difference between basic-service and paid-service family doctor contracting service models in improving the comprehensive control rate of diabetic patients. The possible reasons may be that the quality and content of paid-service is not as good as expected, the period of implementation is not long enough and the sample size of paid-service patients is limited.