ArticleBMJ open2023
Evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of telephone consultation compared to face-to-face consultation in terms of glycaemic control among patients with suboptimally controlled type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Patient safety measures for virtual consultations in primary care: a systematic review.BMJ quality & safety · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Primary Care Utilisation: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A scoping review of digital health applications for managing noncommunicable diseases in primary care post-pandemic: Lessons from the Western Pacific Region.Malaysian family physician : the official journal of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia · 2025Review
- Use of telephone calls to manage glycemic control at Mexico's northern border.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWith the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has been increasingly deployed in lieu of face-to-face consultations for management of diabetes in primary care. There was a need to evaluate clinical effectiveness of telephone consultations for diabetes management and this study aimed to show whether one-off telephone consultation was inferior or not to face-to-face consultation in terms of glycaemic control among patients with suboptimally controlled type 2 diabetes.
designRetrospective cohort study. Data of all patients with type 2 diabetes who had a chronic disease consultation during the period 9 April 2020-18 September 2020, and met the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria was obtained from the electronic medical records.
settingA primary care clinic in the north-eastern region of Singapore. The clinic's patient population was representative of Singapore's population in terms of gender and age.
participants644 patients with type 2 diabetes and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) 7.0% and above, aged 21-80 years old.
interventionsParticipants either underwent telephone or face-to-face consultation for diabetes management. OUTCOME MEASURE: Mean HbA1c change (∆HbA1c) between preintervention and postintervention.
resultsOver 4 months, the mean ∆HbA1c was -0.16 percentage points (p.p.) (95% CI -0.26 to -0.07) and -0.11 p.p. (95% CI -0.20 to -0.02) for face-to-face and telephone consultation groups, respectively. The difference in mean ∆HbA1c between the two groups was +0.05 p.p. (95% CI -∞ to 0.16), with the upper limit of the one-sided 95% CI less than the prespecified non-inferiority margin of 0.5 p.p. (p<0.05). In those with HbA1c≥9%, the difference in mean ∆HbA1c was +0.31 p.p. (95% CI -∞ to 0.79), which exceeded the non-inferiority margin.
conclusionFor patients with suboptimally controlled type 2 diabetes, one-time telephone consultation was non-inferior to face-to-face consultation in terms of glycaemic control in the short term. However, more studies are required to investigate the long-term effects of telephone consultations and for those with HbA1c≥9%.
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