Impact of Monthly A1C Values Obtained at Home on Glycemic Control in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial

The purpose of this randomized controlled clinical trial was to determine whether an A1C value obtained at home by participants followed by a phone discussion of the result with a clinician would lead to 1) a more rapid and significant decrease in A1C, 2) more effective advancement of diabetes treatment, and 3) improvement in diabetes self-care behaviors. The study included 307 participants with type 2 diabetes, most of whom were of Latino origin. All study participants experienced a statistically significant reduction in mean A1C (control subjects −0.3%, P = 0.04; intervention subjects −0.5%, P = 0.0002), but there was a statistically significant difference in the number of people who achieved a reduction of ≥0.5% by 6 months, favoring the intervention (33.6 vs. 46.7%, P = 0.05).