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A prospective observational study to assess the effectiveness of an electronic health (E-health) and mobile health (M-health) platform versus conventional care for the management of diabetes mellitus

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International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We undertook a prospective observational study to evaluate the effectiveness of an electronic health (E-health)/mobile health (M-health) platform versus conventional care for the management of diabetes mellitus. One hundred nine patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited from a tertiary care hospital in India. Thirty-nine patients were enrolled in the Diabetes Care 24x7® (DC) arm, whilst 70 were enrolled in the control (conventional care) group. Primary endpoints included fasting blood sugars (FBS), post-prandial blood sugars (2hr PP) and HbA1c level. Secondary endpoints included knowledge of the disease and its impact on quality of life. Outcome measures were assessed at the initial and fifth month visit. Males/females ≥18 years, attending the diabetes clinic, met the inclusion criteria. Pregnant women were excluded. Eighty six patients completed the study (33 in DC and 53 in the control group). A statistically significant reduction was observed in HbA1c (8.8 ± 1.2 to 7.4 ± 1.3, p value = 0.001). FBS/2hr PP blood sugars showed a trend towards improvement in both arms, but intergroup correlation at study end did not reach statistical significance (p value = 0.5). Diabetes knowledge scores (19.9 ± 2.5 vs. 17.9 ± 3.98, p value = 0.005) and quality of life indices (88.5 ± 7.8 vs. 83.5 ± 10.7, p value = 0.015) showed a statistically significant improvement in the intervention arm. A multifaceted E-health/M-health platform has great potential to reach patients in remote corners of the globe and improve not only their disease parameters but their knowledge scores and quality of life indices. Further longitudinal studies are needed to assess the true potential of this technology to impact diabetes management in the twenty-first century.

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Acknowledgments

This study has received no financial or editorial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, Max Healthcare Inst. Ltd., 2, Press Enclave Road, Saket, New Delhi, 110017, India

    Sujeet Jha, Ashutosh Yadav, Samreen Siddiqui, Manju Panda, Kunal Srivastava, Laxmi Raghuvanshi, Sumeet Kaur, Amit Bhargava & Swati Waghdhare

  2. CR Department, DIPSAR, Pushp Vihar, Sector-III, University of Delhi, New Delhi, 110017, India

    Sangeeta Dogra, Rajani Mathur & S. K. Gupta

Authors
  1. Sujeet Jha
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  2. Sangeeta Dogra
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  3. Ashutosh Yadav
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  4. Samreen Siddiqui
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  5. Manju Panda
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  6. Kunal Srivastava
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  7. Laxmi Raghuvanshi
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  8. Sumeet Kaur
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  9. Amit Bhargava
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  10. Rajani Mathur
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  11. S. K. Gupta
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  12. Swati Waghdhare
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sujeet Jha.

Ethics declarations

This study protocol, CRF and informed consent form were approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Max Super Speciality Hospital (a Unit of Devki Devi Foundation) prior to initiation of the study. Proper informed consent was taken from each and every study participant.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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No funding source to disclose or conflicts of interest present.

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Jha, S., Dogra, S., Yadav, A. et al. A prospective observational study to assess the effectiveness of an electronic health (E-health) and mobile health (M-health) platform versus conventional care for the management of diabetes mellitus. Int J Diabetes Dev Ctries 36, 529–534 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13410-016-0501-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13410-016-0501-x

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