Diabetes Care: An Online Web-Based Tool for Improving the Health Outcomes of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is a chronic medical condition with severe complications, mainly caused by unhealthy lifestyles in genetically susceptible individuals. There has been a growing interest in the role of mobile health technologies in achieving better self-efficacy in managing diabetes. This study attempts to assess the impact of a web-based model on improving the diabetes status among Type 2 diabetic patients attending a tertiary care hospital in southern India. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted among patients with type 2 diabetes attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Mysuru, southern India, for 6 months. Diabetes Care (https://www.diabetes-care.co.in/), which is an online website that can be used as a risk prediction tool for uncontrolled diabetes and recommends lifestyle changes, was used by 456 diabetes patients for 6 months. We assessed the change in glycosylated haemoglobin levels at the beginning and after 6 months of using the software. Results: The mean HbA1c value at the start of the study was 8.039% ± 1.981. The HbA1c value assessed after 6 months post-intervention showed an improvement of 7.794% ± 1.853 with a mean difference of 0.245. A paired T-test showed a statistically significant association with a P value of 0.049. Conclusions: Evidence from this study suggests that intervention using a web-based model focusing on risk prediction and educational intervention showed an improvement in the diabetic status of the patients with T2DM.

Keywords

• diabetes mellitus
• lifestyle modification
• medical technology
• public health
• risk prediction