Improving Medication Adherence in Older African Americans With Diabetes

August 6, 2020 updated by: Thomas Jefferson University
This research aims to help older African Americans with diabetes and mild memory problems improve how they take their medications and control their diabetes. This may preserve their independence and health, prevent cognitive and functional decline, and reduce health care costs. As the population ages and becomes more racially diverse, finding ways to achieve these outcomes has great public health importance.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (DM) in older persons is increasing rapidly. DM increases the risk for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), which is a transition state between normal cognition and dementia that is often characterized by memory and executive function deficits. These deficits reduce adherence to DM medications, which worsens glycemic control and increases the risk for adverse DM-related health outcomes. Improving medication adherence may prevent these outcomes and reduce health care costs. This is important to all older persons with DM but particularly to older African Americans (AAs). They have twice the rate of DM, worse cognitive function, lower medication adherence, and worse glycemic control than whites. One million older AAs now have DM and their number will double by 2030. Because 30% also have MCI, low medication adherence is an important problem for them. This necessitates culturally relevant interventions that compensate for their cognitive deficits and improves their medication adherence and glycemic control. We propose a randomized controlled clinical trial to test the efficacy of a collaborative Primary Care-Occupational Therapy (PC-OT) intervention to lower hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels in older AAs with DM, MCI, HbA1c ≥ 7.5%, and ≤ 80% adherence to an oral hypoglycemic medication. PC-OT consists of: 1) primary care physician (PCP) - occupational therapist (OT) collaboration; 2) DM education tailored to cognitive impairment; 3) in-home OT cognitive-functional assessment; and 4) OT-delivered Behavior Activation to increase adherence to medications and other diabetes self-management (DSM) practices (e.g., diet). We will recruit 100 participants from primary care clinics and randomize them to PC-OT or Enhanced Usual Care (EUC). EUC is usual medical care plus low intensity DM education delivered by community health workers. Participants in both PC-OT and EUC will have 6 initial in-home treatment sessions over 3 months, and then 3 booster sessions during this 12 month study. The primary outcome is a reduction in HbA1c of 0.5%, which reduces the risk of adverse medical events. The primary efficacy analysis compares the proportion of participants in PC-OT and EUC who achieve this outcome at month 6 (short term effect) and at month 12 (maintenance effect). We will measure medication adherence using an electronic Medication Event Monitoring System, prescription refills, and self-reports. A secondary aim determines if improving medication adherence mediates PC-OT's impact on HbA1c levels. We will also evaluate PC-OT's effect on other DSM practices; ER visits and hospitalizations; cognition; function; mood; and quality of life; and PC-OT's costs and net financial benefits. This is the first study to determine if PCPs, collaborating with OTs (who are experts in developing strategies to compensate for cognitive/physical deficits), can improve medication adherence and glycemic control, and prevent cognitive and functional decline in older persons with DM and MCI. If PC-OT is effective in a high risk population of older AAs, its benefits may extend to all older persons with DM and have enormous public health significance.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

101

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19107
        • Thomas Jefferson University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

60 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age 60 years and older.
  2. Self-identified as African American, black, black American, or black/Caribbean.
  3. Type II DM (i.e., physician diagnosis and medication treatment).
  4. HbA1c level ≥ 7.5%.
  5. MCI, based on National Institute on Aging/Alzheimer's Association (NIA/AA) criteria.
  6. ≤ 80% adherence to an oral hypoglycemic medication or insuling, as documented during a run-in phase using a Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS).

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Dementia, based on National Institute on Aging/Alzheimer's Association criteria.
  2. DSM-V psychiatric disorder other than depressive disorders.
  3. End-stage renal disease requiring dialysis.
  4. Hearing/Vision (i.e., severe diabetic retinopathy) or motor (e.g., peripheral neuropathy) impairment that precludes research participation.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Primary Care-Occupational Therapy
PC-OT consists of: 1) primary care physician (PCP) - occupational therapist (OT) collaboration; 2) DM education tailored to cognitive impairment; 3) in-home OT cognitive-functional assessment; and 4) OT-delivered Behavior Activation to increase adherence to medications and other diabetes self-management (DSM) practices (e.g., diet).
Behavioral: Primary Care-Occupational Therapy
PC-OT consists of: 1) primary care physician (PCP) - occupational therapist (OT) collaboration; 2) DM education tailored to cognitive impairment; 3) in-home OT cognitive-functional assessment; and 4) OT-delivered Behavior Activation to increase adherence to medications and other diabetes self-management (DSM) practices (e.g., diet).
PLACEBO_COMPARATOR: Enhanced Usual Care
Usual care enhanced with education and controls for attention
Behavioral: Enhanced Usual Care
Usual care enhanced with education and attention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percent of Participants With Improvement in Hemoglobin A1c by 0.5%"
Time Frame: 6 months
Percent of participants who had a reduction (improvement) of at least .5% in hemoglobin A1c from baseline to 6 months
6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Adherence as Measured By Percentage of Doses Taken as Prescribed
Time Frame: 4-6 months
This was assessed objectively using a Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) bottle. The MEMS measured daily bottle openings continuously to assess adherence to insulin or an oral hypoglycemic agent. The adherence rate is the percent of doses that were taken as prescribed.
4-6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Thomas Jefferson University

Collaborators

Johns Hopkins University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Barry W Rovner, MD, Thomas Jefferson University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

July 1, 2014

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

December 1, 2019

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

December 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 20, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 23, 2014

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

June 25, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

August 10, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 6, 2020

Last Verified

August 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R01DK102609-01 (NIH)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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