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Instant Messaging Improves Diabetes Control

Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2007

If this study is true, then doctors should be setting up a program to start messaging patients to improve their control. An automated instant messaging service can help people with diabetes manage their disease more effectively, researchers report.

Dr. Chulsik Kim from Yongdong Severance Hospital in Seoul and colleagues found that, patients who used a web-based short messaging service for 12 weeks lost weight, had better control of their blood sugar, and lower blood sugar levels both before and after meals.

In the current study, in the journal Diabetes Care, 35 diabetics used the service or 36 did not (control group). Those that used the service recorded their diet and when and how much they exercised on a Web site, and were given a device to measure blood sugar and a pedometer that linked to their cellular phone and transmitted data directly to their Web data sheet. The system then sent messages back to patients on their cell phones.

At the end of 12 weeks, patients using the service had lost an average of 1.9 kilograms, whereas the weight of people in the control group did not change.

Intervention patients also showed a decrease in their average hemoglobin A1C - a measurement of long-term blood sugar control -- from 8.06 percent to 7.34 percent. The American Diabetes Association recommends levels below 7.0 percent. Blood sugar also was significantly lower before and after meals in the patients who used the automated system.

Control patients who did not use the messaging system saw no change in their hemoglobin A1C or blood sugar levels.

From the results of the study we determined that patients in the intervention group did better because they were getting medical advice more often than people in the control group, and this advice was based on very recent patient information. "These factors may have inspired the patients to more actively modify their lifestyle for better glucose (sugar) control."

Source: Diabetes In Control: Diabetes Care, November 2007