Table 1. Outpatient record form of diabetes mellitus care.

Variables	Variables description
Glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)	We used the 2019 Diabetes Clinical Care Manual published by the Diabetes Mellitus Association of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to classify. The content mentions that the 2010 Currie study found that Glycated HbA1c and all-cause mortality in patients over 50 years of age showed a U-shaped relationship, where the patients with HbA1c 7.5% had the lowest mortality rate, and those with HbA1c 6.4% and 10.5% had a significantly higher risk of death [30]. This study population had an average age of 60.2 ± 13.3, and were divided into 2 groups based on HbA1c level (≤ 7.5% or > 7.5%.) Statistical analysis was performed on the 2 groups.
Demographic information	Sex, age, education level, marital status, and and disease duration.
Disease characteristics	Diabetes mellitus, treatment method, complications with other diseases, and hospitalization due to acute complications of diabetes mellitus.
Lifestyle factors	We used the Diabetes Mellitus Prevention Handbook for lifestyle assessments including diet, exercise, recreation, work habits, smoking, and drinking habits [28]. Therefore, the lifestyle variables used in this study included the following: smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise habits, regular blood glucose measurement, and regular follow-up, with good lifestyle habits defined as no smoking, no alcohol consumption, exercise, regular blood glucose measurement, and regular follow-up. Those with 2 to 2 good habits were given a score of ≤ 2, those with 3 good habits had a score of 3, and those with 4–5 good habits were scored > 3.
Regular biochemical tests	For assessment of blood lipid control, the optimal group were defined as having a total cholesterol level < 200 mg/dL, serum LDL cholesterol < 130 mg/dL, serum HDL cholesterol > 40 mg/dL (male) or > 50 mg/dL (female), and serum TG < 150 mg/dL, while the suboptimal group was defined as having a total cholesterol level ≥ 200 mg/dL, serum LDL cholesterol ≥ 130 mg/dL, serum HDL cholesterol ≤ 40 mg/dL (male) or ≤ 50 mg/dL (female), and serum TG ≥ 150 mg/dL. We referred to the Diabetes Mellitus Prevention Handbook, which defines the Diabetes Control Target as a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5–24 Kg/m2 for the optimal group [28]. Therefore, we grouped the patients by BMI into two groups, < 24 Kg/m2 (optimal) and ≥ 24 Kg/m2 (suboptimal).
Screening for chronic complications of diabetes mellitus	Eye and kidney examinations.

Note. We used BECKMAN DxH1601 Fully Automatic Blood Cell Analyzer to instruments blood HbA1c and lipids [31].