Empowering Patients to Better Manage Diabetes Through Self-Care

Changes from baseline in LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides.

Sample sizes for each individual test (usual care plus out-of-pocket cost waiver; EMPOWER group):

1. LDL
2. HDL
3. Total cholesterol
4. Triglycerides

Changes in claims-based economic data on costs of total health care, diabetes medications, and diabetes supplies from baseline to 12 months. Only participants who had a claim in the 12 months prior to baseline were included in these analyses. The resulting sample sizes (usual care plus out-of-pocket cost waiver; EMPOWER group) for these outcomes are:

1. Total cost of care
2. Costs of diabetes medications
3. Costs of diabetes supplies

Psycho-social aspects of diabetes knowledge and empowerment. Sample sizes are in parentheses (usual care plus out-of-pocket cost waiver; EMPOWER group):

1. Changes from baseline to 12 months for the Diabetes Empowerment Scale (DES). Mean score for 28 items each scored as a Likert scale from 1 to 5. Higher scores correspond to greater empowerment
2. Changes from baseline to 12 months for the Adherence Starts with Knowledge (ASK-20) adherence barrier test total barrier score (TBC). The TBC has a range from 0 to 18 and higher scores correspond to greater barriers.
3. Changes from baseline to 12 months for understanding of diabetes. This is a single question: "How would you rate your understanding of diabetes and its treatment?" which uses a 7-point scale Likert scale as the response from 1 (poor) to 7 (excellent).