Conclusions
In conclusion, we have shown that primary healthcare utilisation of diabetes patients is heterogeneous, which could be captured in three distinct profiles of diabetes-related and total healthcare utilisation. The diabetes-related profiles were only partly explained by patient and disease characteristics, posing difficulties for the future development of distinguishable disease management programmes. Further, we have shown that total primary healthcare utilisation is not a good indicator for diabetes-related primary healthcare utilisation for diabetes patients. This fact should also be taken into account in the remuneration system of DMPs.