By Lara Hutchins
Telephone follow up consultations can improve HbA1c levels in patients with poorly controlled diabetes, if provided by specialist nurses and tailored to individual patients.
Researchers at King's College London carried out a systematic review of 36 randomised controlled trials of phone consultations in diabetes. Overall there was a tendency for glycaemic control to be better in patients given telephone follow-up.
But a subgroup analysis of trials, where the intervention was tailored to the individual and delivered by a diabetes nurse found that 73% of patients with an initial HbA1c of 9% reduced their HbA1c by 1% or more after telephone consultations. This was compared with 51% of patients in the control group.
Lead author Dr Angus Forbes, a researcher at King's College London, concluded: ‘Such telecare models could be important in helping to manage the increasing demand for diabetes care.'
Diabet Med 2010, online 11 September
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