Association of Patient and Geographic Variables in Pediatric Patients With Prediabetes Becoming Lost to Follow-up.

Introduction: Prediabetes (PD) is becoming more common, and management is complicated by high rates of loss to follow-up. We evaluated variables associated with lost to follow-up status for pediatric patients with PD referred to endocrinology for evaluation and management.

Methods: We evaluated new patients referred to Children's of Alabama Endocrinology for PD from March 2017 through March 2021. Variables included patient medical and demographics as well as county-level metrics. Comparisons of patients who returned to clinic and those who were lost to follow-up were assessed by chi-square for categorical variables and Student's t-test/Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous normal/skewed variables, respectively. Univariate logistic regression modeling identified risk factors for coming lost to follow-up and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were reported with a 2-sided P-value for significance of <.05.

Results: A total of 524 patients were included in the analysis. Almost one-fourth of patients were lost to follow-up (24.6%). The odds of returning to clinic were higher in patients with the Children's Health Insurance Plan, who were prescribed endocrine medications, who had a concurrent diagnosis of cholesterol disorder, who had referral to the endocrine clinic before COVID-19, and who were offered a telehealth visit. No other assessed variable was significantly associated with the likelihood of returning to clinic.

Conclusion: Independent of obesity severity, age, sex, race, county-level health, and economic variables, the factor most strongly associated with returning to clinic was having a telemedicine visit scheduled. Our data suggest that offering telemedicine visits may reduce lost to follow-up rates in this patient population.