Diabetes education at diagnosis: sooner rather than later?

Few well-designed, randomized, controlled trials have examined the clinical consequences of diabetes education at diagnosis. As a result, relatively few patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have access to such programs. In this Practice Point commentary, I discuss the study of Davies et al., which examined the effect of a structured diabetes education intervention at diagnosis on glycemic control, weight loss, and smoking cessation during a 12-month follow-up period. A control group that received standard diabetes education and guideline-based care was also enrolled. Although glycemic control did not differ between the two groups, patients in the intervention group lost more weight and were more likely to have stopped smoking by 12 months than those in the control group. These findings suggest potential long-term benefits of early patient education. Future studies that examine long-term follow-up data from this cohort would be useful to determine whether early diabetes education has any effect on glycemia later in the disease course.