Effectiveness Of Telemedicine Intervention On Metabolic Control And Self-Care Activities With Type2Diabetes

Objective：To explore the effectiveness of telemedicine intervention mode on behaviors (such assmoking, drinking, regular follow-up and taking medicine, recording blood glucose correctly,asking questions)related to diabetes management, metabolic control and self care activities withT2DM patients.Methods：This is an exprimental study.114volunteers of T2DM meeting the selective standard wereenrolled in the3-month study. They were divided into expremental group and control grouprandomly,57patients in each. Conventional intervention was implemented in the control group,and telemedicine management was taken in the expremental group. For web-based patients, theytransfered blood glucose values and other diabetic data or information to researchers from thehome environment, then received feedback on researchers’ telemonitoring and evaluation,education and advices included. The telemedicine management system also had such functionsas reminding of regular physical examination and laboratory tests they needed, interactivecommunication et al. At the beginning of the study both groups filled in the general informationand self care activities scale of themselves, accepting education of diabetes knowledge inoutpatient department, and finishing the laboratory tests. The self care activities scale andlaboratory tests were requested again at the end of the study. The behaviors related to diabetesmanagement, metabolic control and self care activities were compared between the two groups atthe end of the study.Results:On behaviors (such as smoking, drinking, regular follow-up and taking medicine, recordingdiabetic and other diabetic values correctly, asking questions) related to diabetes positively werebetter improvement compared with baseline data in web–based group (P<0.05), among thesethere were significant changes on recording blood glucose correctly and asking questionspositively compared with the control group (P＜0.001), others were no significant differences (P＞0.05). On metabolic control, BP, FBG, HbA1c, TG, and HDL-C were better controlledcompared with baseline data in web–based group (P＜0.05), and there were significant differences on FBG and HbA1c compared with the control group (P＜0.05), others were nosignificant differences (P＞0.05). There were more patients’ HbA1c less than7%(P=0.049) andless hypoglycemia events in the web-based group (P=0.044) compared with the control group.On self care activities, the total scores and the different dimensional scores were increasedrelative to baseline data in web–based group (P≤0.001), and had a better improvement on totalscores, dietary management scores and foot care scores compared with the control group (P＜0.05), but there were no significant differences on the scores of exercises and glycemicmonitoring activities (P＞0.05).Conclusion:Our data showed that short-term telemedicine intervention for the management of T2DMcould improve glycemic control and self care activities, reduce hypoglycemia events better thanconventional intervention, it also could optimize some behaviors important to diabetes control,so this telemedicine management mode can be recommended in clinical diabetes care, But thelong-term effectiveness should be test in the following study.