Effect of Diabetes Health Coaching on Glycemic Control and Quality of Life in Adults Living With Type 2 Diabetes: A Community-Based, Randomized, Controlled Trial

Health coaching for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) represents a promising addition toward efforts to improve clinical health outcomes and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a 12-month telephone diabetes health coaching (DHC) intervention on glycemic control in persons living with T2DM. In this community-based, randomized, controlled trial, adults with T2DM, glycated hemoglobin (A1C) ≥7.5% and telephone access were assigned to either usual diabetes education (DE) or DHC and access to DE. The primary outcome was change in A1C after 1 year, and secondary outcomes included score on the 19-item Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL-19) instrument and self-care behaviours. Safety was assessed in all participants (NCT02128815 at www.clinicaltrials.gov). Three hundred sixty-five participants (50% females; mean age, 57 years; mean A1C, 8.98%) were randomized to control (DE, n=177) or intervention (DHC, n=188) groups. The A1C level decreased by an absolute amount of 1.8% and 1.3% in the intervention and control groups, respectively. DHC plus DE reduced A1C by 0.49% more than DE alone (95% confidence interval, −0.80 to −0.18; p