Qatar Diabetes Mobile Application Trial

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Type2 Diabetes Mellitus
• Interventions: Device: Droobi; Other: Standard of care

• Registration Number: NCT03998267
• Lead Sponsor: Hamad Medical Corporation

Brief Summary

Diabetes mobile technology is an emerging and rapidly expanding field that seeks to combine cutting edge behavioral insights with best practice in diabetes self management education to improve patient empowerment and deliver better patient outcomes.The question that arises is whether or not, diabetes mobile applications are effective in improving glycemic control, clinical outcomes, quality of life and overall patient satisfaction, in diabetic patients in Qatar. To answer this, we plan to enroll 90 diabetic patients into a custom-made diabetes app for Qatar (Droobi) (as intervention group) in comparison with 90 diabetic patients followed in the current standard care, matched in characteristics (as control group). We have the hypothesis that with utilization of the mobile application, patients will have improved glycemic control, improved self management and patient empowerment; together with improved patient-educator/doctor interaction.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2019-06-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-06-23
• Study First Posted: 2019-06-26
• Study Start: 2019-08-22
• Status Verified: 2020-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-02-12
• Last Update Posted: 2020-02-17
• Primary Completion: 2020-08-17
• Study Completion: 2020-12-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 180

Inclusion Criteria

• • Adults with T2DM (more than 18 yrs of age and younger than 60) who are able to provide consent

  • Arabic speaking and non-arabic speaking T2DM patients, who can communicate in Arabic and or English language.
  • Uncontrolled diabetes with HbA1c more than or equal to 8.5%
  • T2DM on insulin with or without any other oral medication
  • Subject must have a smart phone (must be an iOS (Apple) phone user) and must be interested in using a smart phone app.
  • Subject must have no visual impairment.
  • Minimal level of literacy (able to read and write in english or arabic).
  • To be able to communicate via chat with the mobile app team through the app as evidenced by at least weekly use of any of the social media such as WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger etc
  • Subject must be willing to utilize a mobile application for diabetes control

Exclusion Criteria

• • Recent history (3 months) of stroke or Myocardial infarction.

  • Patients with proliferating retinopathy
  • Patients with an acute illness during the past 2 weeks.
  • Patients who plan to be away for more than 3 months.
  • Patients with CKD requiring dialysis.
  • Hypoglycemia unawareness.
  • More than one episode of severe hypoglycemia in the previous 6 months.
  • Female patients who are planning for pregnancy in the coming 6 months.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Intervention arm	Standard of care	For the subjects using the app (intervention group): The mobile app team shall do the following: * Educate/train patients on app usage * Patients will be subscribed to the app and their profile on the app will be created * Subjects will log in their blood sugar readings and communicate with the mobile app team (educators and physician) via the app * Additionally patients will be placed on a diet and lifestyle plan as agreed upon by the patient and health care provider team, best suited towards the patient's needs * Throughout the study, patient will receive notifications and advice on how to follow diet and lifestyle changes * Throughout the study; patient interaction and app usage will be tracked * Patients will additionally be interviewed by the research team together with Droobi to capture app experience at 3 months and 6 months
Standard of care arm	Standard of care	For the subjects not using the app (the standard of care group): * At time 0, will be seen by the dietician and diabetes educators at HGH endocrine clinics as part of standards of care * The educators contact number and diabetes hotline number will be provided to the patients o The diabetes hotline number #16099 is a new service provided to diabetes patients at the national diabetes center to help communicate with the diabetes educators with questions relating to their diabetes management, medication adjustment such as dose titrations etc. * Appointments thereafter with the educator and/or dietician will be decided and scheduled according to the individual patient needs, with a minimum visit every 3 months during the study period
Intervention arm	Droobi	For the subjects using the app (intervention group): The mobile app team shall do the following: * Educate/train patients on app usage * Patients will be subscribed to the app and their profile on the app will be created * Subjects will log in their blood sugar readings and communicate with the mobile app team (educators and physician) via the app * Additionally patients will be placed on a diet and lifestyle plan as agreed upon by the patient and health care provider team, best suited towards the patient's needs * Throughout the study, patient will receive notifications and advice on how to follow diet and lifestyle changes * Throughout the study; patient interaction and app usage will be tracked * Patients will additionally be interviewed by the research team together with Droobi to capture app experience at 3 months and 6 months

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Difference in mean HbA1c	3 months	Difference in mean HbA1C between the intervention arm and the standard care

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Lipids	6 months	Changes in lipids from baseline at 6 months
Number of clinical interactions	6 months	• Differences in the number of clinical interactions per subjects with healthcare providers through the mobile app and through usual means in the standard care
Changes in reported hypoglycemia	6 months	Difference in the number of reported hypoglycemic events per subject between the intervention and usual care arm.
Change in subjects attitudes towards disease	6 months	Within subject changes in attitudes towards disease assessed the proportion of subjects with diabetes distress scales (DDS) scores consistent with moderate or high distress.The DDS yields a total distress score plus 4 subscale (emotional burden,physical distress, regimen distress and interpersonal distress) scores each addressing a different kind of distress. A mean item score 2.0-2.9 is considered moderate distress and a mean score of more than or equal to 3 is considered high stress.
Time to achieve normoglycemia	6 months	Reduction in the time required to reach normoglycemia (in-range blood glucose readings) between the intervention and control groups.
Subject perceptions of diabetes self management	6 months	Within subject changes in perceptions of diabetes self-management as assessed by diabetes self-management questionnaire (DSMQ) scores subsection glucose management and overall rating. DSM-Q is a 16 item questionnaire to assess self-care activities associated with glycemic control. Four subscales, 'Glucose Management' (GM), 'Dietary Control' (DC), 'Physical Activity' (PA), and 'Health-Care Use' (HU), as well as a 'Sum Scale' (SS) as a global measure of self-care. Scale scores are calculated as sums of item scores and then transformed to a scale ranging from 0 to 10 (raw score / theoretical maximum score \* 10. A transformed score of ten thus represents the highest self-rating of the assessed behavior
Changes in insulin doses	6 months	Difference in number of recommended insulin dose adjustments per subject between intervention and usual care arm
Missed clinical appointments	6 months	Percent of missed clinical appointments in each arm.
Weight	6 months	Changes in weight from baseline at 6 months
Blood Pressure	6 months	Changes in blood pressure from baseline at 6 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Hamad General Hospital; 🇶🇦 Doha, Qatar