Value of Patient-Centered Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

In Pursuit of Person-Centered Medicine: How Do People with Type 2 Diabetes Choose Glucose-Lowering Medications? A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND

Clinical guidelines recommend person-centered selection of glucose-lowering therapies that takes patient goals, preferences, and needs into consideration. However, there is limited understanding of how patients' preferences and experiences shape their medication choices.

OBJECTIVE

To explore how individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) choose glucose-lowering medications, focusing on their treatment goals, preferences, and alignment between patient and clinician priorities.

DESIGN

Qualitative study.

PARTICIPANTS

Forty adults with T2D at moderate cardiovascular disease risk, currently taking ≥ 1 glucose-lowering medication, recruited from two health systems in the Midwestern and Southern United States.

APPROACH

Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to explore factors influencing medication choice, quality of communication with clinicians, and degree of patient-perceived alignment between patient and clinician treatment goals.

KEY RESULTS

Among the 40 participants, 55% were female with a mean age of 56.1 years (SD 13.6). The majority identified as White (50.0%) or Black (37.5%). Participants emphasized the importance of avoiding specific side effects and achieving efficacy in their T2D medication choices. While participants valued clear and comprehensive information about medications from clinicians, many described unmet needs and often supplemented clinical information with advice from peers and online sources. Perceptions around medication decision-making authority varied, with some participants preferring patient-led choices, others relying on clinician expertise, and many advocating for a collaborative or shared decision-making approach to selecting a T2D medication. Discrepancies were noted between clinical priorities and person-centered outcomes, with patients prioritizing quality of life and manageable treatment regimens over strict clinical targets.

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding patient preferences and experiences is crucial for achieving person-centeredness in T2D medication management. Participants described diverse approaches to evaluating glucose-lowering medications, prioritizing quality of life, ease of adherence, and minimizing side effects. Transparent and collaborative communication with clinicians was identified as crucial for aligning treatment plans with patient values.

Perspectives on Stringent Glycemic Control and Weight Loss Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in China: A Survey Study

INTRODUCTION

Although current guidelines for type 2 diabetes (T2D) underscored the importance of attaining glycemic control and weight management goals, the patient perspectives on achieving these goals remained unclear in China. This study aimed to understand Chinese patients' perspectives on stringent glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c [HbA1c] ≤ 6.5%) and weight loss (≥ 10%) and their treatment preferences.

METHODS

Adult Chinese patients diagnosed with T2D who were aware of their latest HbA1c were enrolled in this survey study. An electronic questionnaire was designed to collect patients' characteristics, perspectives on safely achieving stringent glycemic control and weight loss, and preferences for different T2D treatment profiles.

RESULTS

The study included 495 patients. Patients predominantly indicated that safely achieving stringent glycemic control was extremely (82.83%) or moderately (12.12%) important. Nearly half of the patients (n = 231) perceived ≥ 10% weight loss as beneficial, among whom 117 (50.65%) and 84 (36.36%) indicated it was extremely and moderately important, respectively. Both having HbA1c > 6.5% within the past 6 months and body mass index ≥ 24 kg/m2 were associated with increased odds of choosing the T2D treatment with a higher chance of achieving stringent glycemic control and weight loss, given a similar safety profile. Conversely, age ≥ 60 years was associated with decreased odds of having the outcomes listed above.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that most surveyed patients with T2D in China recognized the importance of safely achieving stringent glycemic control and weight loss. The identified factors associated with patients' perspectives and preferences could benefit clinical decision-making.

Effectiveness of shared decision-making for glycaemic control among type 2 diabetes mellitus adult patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

In diabetes care and management guidelines, shared decision-making (SDM) implementation is explicitly recommended to help patients and health care providers to make informed shared decisions that enable informed choices and the selection of treatments. Despite widespread calls for SDM to be embedded in health care, there is little evidence to support SDM in the management and care of diabetes. It is still not commonly utilized in routine care settings because its effects remain poorly understood. Hence, the current systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of SDM for glycaemic control among type 2 diabetes adult patients.

METHODS

Literature sources were searched in MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane library and HINARI bibliographic databases and Google Scholar. When these records were searched and reviewed, the PICO criteria (P: population, I: intervention, C: comparator, and O: outcome) were applied. The extracted data was exported to RevMan software version 5.4 and STATA 17 for further analysis. The mean differences (MD) of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were pooled using a random effect model (REM), and sub-group analysis were performed to evaluate the effect size differences across the duration of the follow-up period, modes of intervention, and baseline glycated hemoglobin level of patient groups. The sensitivity analysis was performed using a leave-one-out meta-analysis to quantify the impact of each study on the overall effect size in mean difference HbA1c%. Finally, the statistically significant MD of HbA1c% between the intervention groups engaged in SDM and control groups received usual care was declared at P ˂0.05, using a 95% confidence interval (CI).

RESULTS

In the database search, 425 records were retrieved, with only 17 RCT studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. A total of 5416 subjects were included, out of which 2782(51.4%) were included in trial arms receiving SDM and 2634(48.6%) were included in usual diabetes care. The Higgins (I2) test statistics were calculated to be 59.1%, P = 0.002, indicating statistically significant heterogeneity was observed among the included studies, and REM was used as a remedial to estimate the pooled MD of HbA1c% level between patients who participated in SDM and received usual care. As a result, the pooled MD showed that the SDM significantly lowered HbA1c by 0.14% compared to the usual care (95% CI = [-0.26, -0.02], P = 0.02). SDM significantly decreased the level of HbA1c by 0.14% (95% CI = -0.28, -0.01, P = 0.00) when shared decisions were made in person or face-to-face at the point of care, but there was no statistically significant reduction in HbA1c levels when patients were engaged in online SDM. In patients with poorly controlled glycaemic level (≥ 8%), SDM significantly reduced level of HbA1c by 0.13%, 95% CI = [-0.29, -0.03], P = 0.00. However, significant reduction in HbA1c was not observed in patients with ˂ 8%, HbA1c baseline level.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, statistically significant reduction of glycated hemoglobin level was observed among T2DM adult patients who participated in shared decision-making compared to those patients who received diabetes usual care that could lead to improved long-term health outcomes, reducing the risk of diabetes-related complications. Therefore, we strongly suggest that health care providers and policy-makers should integrate SDM into diabetes health care and management, and further study should focus on the level of patients' empowerment, health literacy, and standardization of decision supporting tools to evaluate the effectiveness of SDM in diabetes patients.

Patient-important outcomes in type 2 diabetes: The paradigm of the sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists

The newfound knowledge in type 2 diabetes (T2D) during the past decade for the sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) is wealthy in favorable results for key patient-important outcomes including morbidity, mortality and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The SGLT-2i and GLP-1RA offer cardiovascular and renal protection beyond their glucose lowering effect, reduce body weight and hypoglycemia and improve diabetes-related distress, physical function and HRQoL. Along with the fixed-ratio combinations of basal insulin/GLP-1RA, they make feasible a regimen simplification and de-escalation from high dose and multiple injections of insulin reducing treatment burden. Besides cardiorenal risk reduction, the SGLT-2i and GLP-1RA reduce the incidence of depression, cognitive decline, respiratory disease, gout, arrhythmias and other co-occurring conditions of T2D, namely multimorbidity, which frequently complicates T2D and adversely affects HRQoL. The alleviation of multimorbidity by the pleiotropic effects of the SGLT-2i and GLP-1RA, could improve patients' HRQoL. The use of the SGLT-2i and GLP-1RA should be increased within a shared decision-making in which they are reframed as cardiorenal risk-reducing medications with the potential to lower blood glucose. By improving outcomes that patients may highly perceive and value, the SGLT-2i and GLP-1RA may facilitate the contemporary person-centered management of T2D.

The association between alcohol drinking and glycemic management among people with type 2 diabetes in China

INTRODUCTION

To investigate the association between alcohol drinking and glycemic management among adult patients with type 2 diabetes in regional China.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this cross-sectional survey conducted in Nanjing Municipality of China in 2018, adult type 2 diabetes patients were randomly selected from urban and rural communities. The outcome variable was the glycemic management status. The explanatory measure was alcohol drinking. Mixed-effects regression models were employed to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for examining the associations of alcohol drinking with glycemic management among type 2 diabetes patients.

RESULTS

Among the overall 5,663 participants, the glycemic management rate was 39.8% (95% CI = 38.5, 41.1), with 41.2% (95% CI = 39.7, 42.7), 43.9% (95% CI = 38.9, 48.8), and 34.1% (95% CI = 31.5, 36.7) for non-drinkers, mild/moderate drinkers, and heavy drinkers, respectively. After adjustment for potential confounders and community-level clustering effect, heavy and mild/moderate alcohol drinkers were at 0.76 (95% CI = 0.66, 0.89) and 1.04 (95% CI = 0.87, 1.28) times odds to have glycemia under control than non-drinkers among the overall participants. Furthermore, when stratified separately by gender and use of anti-diabetes agents, the scenario within men, either regular or irregular users of anti-diabetes agents was the same as that for overall participants, while the association between alcohol drinking and glycemic management became non-significant among women.

CONCLUSIONS

Heavy alcohol drinking might have a negative effect on glycemic management among patients with type 2 diabetes irrespective of the use of anti-diabetes agents in regional China. This study has important public health implications regarding precision intervention on patients' glycemia control for type 2 diabetes management.

Blood glucose control in the burn intensive care unit: A narrative review of literature

Burn survivors undergoing complex glycemic derangements in the acute period after burn are at significantly increased risk of worse outcomes. Although most critical care investigations recommend intensive glycemic control to prevent morbidity and mortality, conflicting recommendations exist. To date, no literature review has studied outcomes associated with intensive glucose control in the burn intensive care unit (ICU) population. This review addresses this gap to improve practice guidelines and support further research regarding glycemic control. This is a narrative review of literature utilizing PubMed for articles published at any time. Inclusion criteria were English studies describing glucose management in ICU adult burn patients. Studies involving pediatric patients, non-human subjects, care non-ICU care, case reports, editorials, and position pieces were excluded. Our literature search identified 2154 articles. Full text review of 61 articles identified eight meeting inclusion criteria. Two studies reported mortality benefit of intensive glucose control ( mg/dL) compared to controls ( mg/dL), while two studies showed no mortality differences. Three studies reported reduced infectious complications such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection, sepsis, and bacteremia. A majority of the studies (6/8) reported higher risk for hypoglycemia with tight glucose control, but few reported instances of adverse sequela associated with hypoglycemia. Intensive glucose control may provide benefit to burn patients, but complications associated with hypoglycemia must be considered. This review recommends an individualized patient-centered approach factoring comorbidities, burn injury characteristics, and risk factors when determining whether to employ intensive glucose control.

Advances in the management of type 2 diabetes in adults

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic and progressive cardiometabolic disorder that affects more than 10% of adults worldwide and is a major cause of morbidity, mortality, disability, and high costs. Over the past decade, the pattern of management of diabetes has shifted from a predominantly glucose centric approach, focused on lowering levels of haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), to a directed complications centric approach, aimed at preventing short term and long term complications of diabetes, and a pathogenesis centric approach, which looks at the underlying metabolic dysfunction of excess adiposity that both causes and complicates the management of diabetes. In this review, we discuss the latest advances in patient centred care for type 2 diabetes, focusing on drug and non-drug approaches to reducing the risks of complications of diabetes in adults. We also discuss the effects of social determinants of health on the management of diabetes, particularly as they affect the treatment of hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes.

Fixed-ratio Combinations (basal Insulin Plus GLP-1RA) In Type 2 Diabetes. an Analytical Review Of Pivotal Clinical Trials

In type 2 diabetes, therapeutic failure to the oral anti diabetics is frequent, the use of schemes with basal insulin or with multiple doses of insulin (basal insulin and short-acting insulins) are a widely accepted way to intensify therapy. The use of GLP-1 receptor agonists is another intensification strategy. The fixedratio combinations with molecules such as insulin degludec + liraglutide, and insulin glargine + lixisenatide have proven useful in intensifying treatment of individuals with type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this review was to evaluate and analyze the results of pivotal studies with both fixed-ratio combinations in individuals with type 2 diabetes, finding that, they are capable of achieving better glycemic control when compared with each of its components separately (with a lower risk of hypoglycemia vs basal insulin and lower risk of gastrointestinal adverse effects vs GLP-1 receptor agonists) in various clinical scenarios, especially in individuals who do not achieve control with oral antidiabetics or who do not achieve control with basal insulin (associated with oral antidiabetics) or in those under management with GLP-1RA plus oral antidiabetics.

Antidiabetic activity of Solanum torvum fruit extract in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Background

Solanum torvum Swartz, a medicinal plant belonging to the family Solanaceae, is an important medicinal plant widely distributed throughout the world and used as medicine to treat diabetes, hypertension, tooth decay, and reproductive problems in traditional systems of medicine around the world including Malaysia. The objective of this study was to investigate hypoglycemic, antilipidemic, and hepatoprotective activities, histopathology of the pancreas, and specific glucose regulating gene expression of the ethanolic extract of S. torvum fruit in streptozotocin-induced diabetic Sprague–Dawley rats.

Materials and methods

Acute toxicity study was done according to OECD-423 guidelines. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of streptozotocin (55 mg/kg) in male Sprague–Dawley rats. Experimental diabetic rats were divided into six different groups; normal, diabetic control, and glibenclamide at 6 mg/kg body weight, and the other three groups of animals were treated with oral administration of ethanolic extract of S. torvum fruit at 120, 160, and 200 mg/kg for 28 days. The effect of ethanolic extract of S. torvum fruit on body weight, blood glucose, lipid profile, liver enzymes, histopathology of pancreas, and gene expression of glucose transporter 2 (slc2a2), and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK1) was determined by RT-PCR.

Results

Acute toxicity studies showed LD₅₀ of ethanolic extract of S. torvum fruit to be at the dose of 1600 mg/kg body weight. Blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins, very low-density lipoproteins, serum alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase were significantly reduced, whereas high-density lipoproteins were significantly increased in S. torvum fruit (200 mg/kg)-treated rats. Histopathological study of the pancreas showed an increase in number, size, and regeneration of β-cell of islets of Langerhans. Gene expression studies revealed the lower expression of slc2a2 and PCK1 in treated animals when compared to diabetic control.

Conclusion

Ethanolic extract of S. torvum fruits showed hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and hepatoprotective activity in streptozocin-induced diabetic rats. Histopathological studies revealed regeneration of β cells of islets of Langerhans. Gene expression studies indicated lower expression of slc2a2 and PCK1 in treated animals when compared to diabetic control, indicating that the treated animals prefer the gluconeogenesis pathway.

Glycemic control and its influencing factors in type 2 diabetes patients in Anhui, China

Objective

To investigate the status of glycemic control and analyze its influencing factors in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Anhui, China.

Methods

1,715 T2D patients aged 18-75 years old were selected from 4 counties or districts in Anhui Province in 2018, using a convenience sampling method. All patients have undergone a questionnaire survey, physical examination, and a glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) test. According to the 2022 American Diabetes Association criteria, HbA1c was used to evaluate the glycemic control status of patients, and HbA1c < 7.0% was defined as good glycemic control. The influencing factors of glycemic control were analyzed by multivariate unconditional logistic regression.

Results

The prevalence of good glycemic control among people with T2D in the Anhui Province was low (22.97%). On univariate analysis, gender, education level, occupation, region, smoking, drinking, waist circumference and disease duration (all P < 0.05) were significantly associated with glycemic control. The factors associated with pool glycemic control were female gender [OR = 0.67, 95%CI (0.52, 0.86), P = 0.001], higher level of education [OR = 0.47, 95%CI (0.27, 0.83), P = 0.001], living in rural areas [OR = 1.77, 95%CI (1.39, 2.26), P < 0.001], central obesity [OR = 1.58, 95%CI (1.19, 2.09), P = 0.001] and longer duration of disease [OR = 2.66, 95%CI (1.91, 3.69), P < 0.001].

Conclusions

The prevalence of good glycemic control in people with T2D in Anhui Province was relatively low, and gender, region, education level, central obesity and course of the disease were influencing factors. The publicity and education on the importance of glycemic control should be further strengthened in T2D patients, and targeted intervention measures should be carried out for risk groups.