Patients, physicians differ on their top concerns

Doctors and their patients with diabetes most often ranked the disease among their top concerns, but 38 percent of doctors ranked hypertension as the most important condition that the patient faced, compared with 18 percent of patients. Patients also were more likely to prioritize symptoms such as pain and depression, according to a February online article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and a Veterans Affairs medical center in Ann Arbor surveyed 92 primary care doctors and 1,200 patients who had diabetes and hypertension. For 28 percent of the patient-provider pairs, the provider's list of top three priorities for the patient did not include the patient's top priority.