Currently, the health management of diabetic patients in the community is still facing many challenges, and it is difficult to effectively improve the glycemic control rate, so exploring the factors affecting glycemic control to delay or reverse the development of complications in diabetic patients is important.

Exploring the characteristics of specific categories of glycemic control in community diabetic patients, the influencing factors, and the association with common complications to provide a scientific basis for the management of community diabetic patients.

A questionnaire survey conducted from March 2023 to April 2024 was used to collect demographic characteristics, health education, diseases, and health management of 417 community diabetes patients in three county-level regions of Qintong Town in Jiangyan District, Taizhou City, Jishi Town in Jingjiang City, and Chenbao Town in Xinghua City. The patients' glycemic control was categorized by potential category analysis, and the prevalence of diabetic complications and their influencing factors under different glycemic control categories were investigated by multiple Logistic regression analysis.

Based on the latent class analysis results, the 417 diabetic patients were categorized into three groups: Class 1: the older-age/low-health-literacy group (n=181, 43.40%); Class 2: the middle-age/moderate-health-literacy group (n=158, 37.89%); and Class 3: the younger-age/high-health-literacy group (n=78, 18.71%). Significant differences were observed among the three groups in the prevalence of hypertension, stroke, and neuropathic complications (P<0.05). Specifically, the older-age/low-health-literacy group and the middle-age/moderate-health-literacy group exhibited higher rates of comorbid hypertension, stroke, and neuropathy compared to the younger-age/high-health-literacy group (all P<0.01). Multiple Logistic regression analysis revealed that, compared to the younger-age/high-health-literacy group, having a junior high school education or above (OR=0.256, 95%CI=0.129-0.510, P<0.001; OR=0.355, 95%CI=0.181-0.696, P=0.003) and implementing more than three blood glucose control measures (OR=0.272, 95%CI=0.148-0.499, P<0.001; OR=0.542, 95%CI=0.298-0.986, P=0.045) were protective factors for blood glucose control in the older-age/low-health-literacy group and the middle-age/moderate-health-literacy group, respectively. Conversely, being unmarried/divorced/widowed (OR=3.303, 95%CI=1.208-9.035, P=0.020) was identified as a risk factor for blood glucose control in the middle-age/moderate-health-literacy group.

Glycemic control of diabetic patients in the Taizhou community has obvious categorical characteristics. The distribution of hypertension, stroke, and neurological complications is different among different potential categories, and the influencing factors are education level, marital status, glycemic control measures, etc. Categorical interventions should be carried out according to the characteristics of the different categories of the population.