A Nurse-Led Telemonitoring Approach in Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prospective Cohort Study

The utility of a nurse-led telemonitoring approach (NLTA) is yet to be firmly established in diabetes management.

This study aims to examine the effect of a 12-month proactive NLTA on metabolic and psychological health indices in individuals with diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to evaluate it as a new diabetes model of care.

The telemonitoring study group (TSG; n=91) comprised adults who had attended an Australian tertiary hospital diabetes center between January 2019 and March 2020. Telehealth surveillance contact with a diabetes nurse educator was subsequently maintained at approximately 3-month intervals over 12 months. Prospective surveillance measures included glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c%), weight, adherence to healthy behaviors, and patient-reported outcomes of diabetes distress, anxiety, and depression using validated instruments. Metabolic changes were compared retrospectively with a comparison group who had not received telemonitoring contact during the study period (non-TSG; n=115).

The average participant age was 57.2 (SD 15) years; 63% (129/206) were male, 48% (99/206) had type 1 diabetes, 50% (104/206) had type 2 diabetes, and the mean HbA1c% was 8.1% (SD 1.4%). At the end of the 12-month study, the relative percentage reduction in unadjusted HbA1c% for the TSG cohort was significantly greater than that observed in the non-TSG cohort (4% vs 1%; P=.04). Following adjustment for baseline HbA1c%, a significant improvement in HbA1c% was observed in the TSG (P=.048) but not in the non-TSG (P=.61). TSG participants were 40% less likely (odds ratio 0.6, 95% CI 0.5-0.7) to experience an unfavorable rise in HbA1c% compared to non-TSG participants, after adjusting for sex, age, prepandemic HbA1c%, ethnicity, diabetes type, and diabetes duration. The NLTA facilitated assessments of psychological risk, with elevated depression, anxiety and diabetes distress scores significantly increased in women and youth <30 years of age (P<.001). Increasing anxiety measures were observed in those with high baseline anxiety scores (P<.001).

A proactive diabetes NLTA is feasible with positive effects on glycemia and the potential to identify those at psychological risk for targeted intervention. In the context of increasing demand for diabetes-related resources, further study of an NLTA model of care is warranted.