A study published online last week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. showed no benefit for lifestyle coaching over standard medical treatment in Type II diabetes in a real-world setting.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina randomized 450 Type II diabetics between January 2014 and July 2015 to 1 of 3 treatment arms: No self-monitoring of blood glucose; once-daily SMBG with standard glucose measurement feedback; and once-daily SMBG testing with standard glucose measurement feedback and automated, tailored feedback.
The subjects were tracked for a year, with baseline glycemic control and hemoglobin A1c compared at 1 year. Primary outcomes also included change from baseline quality-of-life scores at 52 weeks and change in health-related quality of life using the SF-36 scale.
Of the 418 patients who completed the final week 52 visit, there were no significant differences across all 3 groups for any of the outcomes, according to the study.
“In patients with non–insulin-treated Type II diabetes, we observed no clinically or statistically significant differences at 1 year in glycemic control or HRQOL between patients who performed SMBG compared with those who did not perform SMBG. The addition of this type of tailored feedback provided through messaging via a meter did not provide any advantage in glycemic control,” the researchers wrote. “There were no notable differences in key adverse events including hypoglycemia frequency, health care utilization, or insulin initiation.”
