A Ubiquitous Chronic Disease Care system using cellular phones and the internet.
OBJECTIVE
The rapidly increasing prevalence of chronic diseases is an important challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. To improve the quality and efficiency of chronic disease care, we investigated the effectiveness and applicability of the Ubiquitous Chronic Disease Care (UCDC) system using cellular phones and the internet for overweight patients with both Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.


METHODS
We conducted a randomized, controlled clinical trial over 3 months that included 123 patients at a university hospital and a community public health centre.


RESULTS
After 12 weeks, there were significant improvements in HbA(1c) in the intervention group (7.6 +/- 0.9% to 7.1 +/- 0.8%, P < 0.001) compared with the control group (7.4 +/- 0.9% to 7.6 +/- 1.0%, P = 0.03). Furthermore, we observed a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as improvements in total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the intervention group. Furthermore, there was a significant increase in adiponectin levels in the intervention group compared with the control group, although high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 levels did not change in either group.


CONCLUSIONS
The novel UCDC system presented in this paper improved multiple metabolic parameters simultaneously in overweight patients with both Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Yoo
H J
HJ
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Park
M S
MS
Kim
T N
TN
Yang
S J
SJ
Cho
G J
GJ
Hwang
T G
TG
Baik
S H
SH
Choi
D S
DS
Park
G H
GH
Choi
K M
KM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D040421:Cell Phone; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010353:Patient Education as Topic