Improving Insulin Therapy With Enhanced Care Management and Peer Support

Background:

VA diabetes patients often have difficulty managing their self-care and accessing clinic-based services; many also lack social support to help them meet the demands of their illness. Enhanced support is especially important when undertaking and sustaining new challenging self-care tasks, such as initiating or intensifying insulin treatment regimens. Although some VAs have implemented telephone nurse care management programs supported by automated calling services, many are reluctant to adopt these models due to nursing shortages.

Objectives:

This randomized trial will evaluate an intervention using a low-cost interactive voice response (IVR) exchange system to promote peer-to-peer communication among diabetes patients initiating or increasing insulin therapy under medical guidance. The intervention is based on research demonstrating the positive impact of peer support on chronic disease outcomes and self-care behaviors, our own prior studies demonstrating the effectiveness of IVR-based self-management supports for VA diabetes patients, and a successful pilot study demonstrating VA diabetes patients' willingness to participate in IVR-facilitated peer support. The Specific Aims are: (1) To evaluate the effect of IVR-facilitated peer support on diabetes patients' glycemic control (including their A1c levels, insulin doses, hypo- and hyperglycemic symptoms) and use of VA care; (2) To assess the impact of IVR-facilitated peer support on patient-centered outcomes, including patients' satisfaction with care, perceived social support, diabetes-specific quality of life, and self-care behaviors; and (3) To identify patient characteristics associated with participation and use of IVR peer support, and mediators of the intervention's impact on patient outcomes.

Methods: