Peer Support to Enhance Diabetes Shared Medical Appointments: Examining Comparative Effectiveness in VA Health Systems
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Diabetes Insipidus
- Sponsor
- VA Office of Research and Development
- Enrollment
- 1536
- Locations
- 5
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in Glycemic Control
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 5 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-to-peer program (P2P) in addition to Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) compared to SMAs alone for the treatment of diabetes in five VA health systems, and to study the implementation process in order to gather information required to disseminate the program more broadly in the VHA system.
Detailed Description
Providers are often unable to communicate as frequently as needed with diabetes patients who have poor risk factor control and face significant self-management challenges. Moreover, many VA patients face barriers to attending frequent face-to-face visits. This project will evaluate the implementation of a novel program found in a recent VA randomized, controlled trial to significantly improve VA patients' diabetes-specific social support, insulin starts, and glycemic control compared to usual nurse care management. The program uses periodic group sessions in conjunction with calls between paired patients with diabetes to promote more effective care management as well as peer-to-peer (P2P) communication among diabetes patients who both have poor glycemic control and are working on similar care goals. "Peer buddies" are encouraged to talk by phone at least weekly to provide mutual support and share their progress on meeting their self-management goals. The goal of this service is to enhance the effect of shared medical appointments (SMAs), a service model demonstrated to be effective in improving outcomes among patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions and now being widely implemented in VA. Based on the success of the efficacy trial of this intervention, the investigators now seek to evaluate a wider-scale implementation of this program. During implementation of the P2P program in conjunction with shared medical appointments (SMAs) in five diverse VA facilities, the investigators will evaluate the effectiveness of SMAs alone and SMAs+P2P compared to usual care, and study the implementation process in order to gather information required to disseminate the program more broadly in Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Veterans enrolled into diabetes Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) at participating sites, and a random subset of those meeting criteria for diabetes SMAs who have not yet participated:
- •Veteran receiving care at a participating VA Medical Center
- •Meets at least one of the following criteria in the past 2 years;
- •at least 1 VA hospitalization with a diabetes-related International Classification Of Diseases-9 (ICD-9) code,
- •at least 2 VA outpatient visits with a diabetes-related ICD-9 code, or
- •At least 1 VA prescription for a glucose control medication (insulin or oral agent) or monitoring supplies
- •Poor glycemic control, indicated by a HbA1c in the past 6 months or:
- •at least 7.5% if age \<70, or
- •at least 8% if age 70+
- •Has a current address and telephone number listed in VA databases
Exclusion Criteria
- •For no intervention control group:
- •Active substance abuse disorder (smoking cigarettes is not an exclusion)
- •Serious psychiatric illness (bipolar disorder, dementia, schizophrenia, or personality disorders)
- •Terminally ill
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in Glycemic Control
Time Frame: 6 months and 12 months post-enrollment
Glycemic control (measured by Hemoglobin A1c) in each group will be assessed by the comparison of an average of the values obtained during routine outpatient clinical practice in 6-month windows preceding baseline and following the 6 and 12-month post-enrollment evaluation periods. In addition to measuring absolute values of A1c, the investigators will also examine the change in the percentage of patients with an average A1c \> 8%.
Secondary Outcomes
- Statin Starts(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Emergency Department (ED) Visits(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Insulin Starts(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Change in Number of Classes of Anti-hypertensive Meds(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Change in Patient-reported Degree of Self-Efficacy(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- PCP Visits(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Endocrinology Visits(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Change in Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP)(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Change in Patient-reported Satisfaction With VA Care(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Change in Patient-reported Degree of Diabetes Support(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Change in Patient-reported Diabetes Distress(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Hospitalizations(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Length of Hospitalizations(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)
- Nurse Case Manager Visits(6 months and 12 months post-enrollment)