The short- and long-term effects of community-family-doctor-based type 2 diabetes self-management interventions

The popularity of contracted family doctor services in China has been growing in recent years, but community-family-doctor-based type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) intervention programs have yet to be adequately studied. This study was to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of community-family-doctor-based self-management interventions for T2DM and to explore strategies for long-term glycemic control.

This was a randomized controlled trial.

A total of 144 eligible participants were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The control group received only routine community diabetes care, and the intervention group received community-family-doctor-based interventions involving the same standard of care. The interventions lasted for 3 months, and the follow-up was continued for 15 months. Intention-to-treat analysis and generalized estimation equations were then used to determine the short- and long-term effects of the interventions on glycated hemoglobin (HbA_1c), diabetes self-management, and medication adherence.

There were statistically significantly greater improvements in all aspects of the intervention group after 3 months of intervention. Compared with baseline, changes in the attitude (β = 0.384, 95% confidence interval [CI; 0.194, 0.574], P < 0.001), practice (β = 1.751, 95% CI [0.762, 2.739], P = 0.001), and knowledge, attitudes, practice total scores (β = 2.338, 95% CI [0.682, 3.995], P = 0.006) of patients in the intervention group were statistically significant after 15 months, and the HbA_1c (8.19 ± 1.73%), knowledge (16.42 ± 3.21), and medication adherence (5.53 ± 1.76) scores were slightly better than those at baseline, although not statistically significant (P > 0.05).

T2DM self-management interventions based on community family doctors improved patients' HbA_1c, diabetes self-management, and medication adherence, did not do so significantly in the long term.