HbA1c home-collection kit
Research type
Research Study
Full title
User evaluation of a glycated haemoglobin home collection kit for people with diabetes
IRAS ID
189675
Contact name
Christopher Duff
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Type 1 and Type 2 are the most common types of diabetes mellitus. Although the cause of Type 1 is different to Type 2, they can both lead to high blood glucose levels as the patient is unable to store and use sugar. The disease is an epidemic of the 21st century which is increasing, having a current prevalence of approximately 8%.
Poor disease control is associated with a range of long-term health conditions which have a severe impact upon quality of life and are responsible for the increased morbidity and mortality associated with the disease.
Healthcare professionals use HbA1c as the main marker to monitor diabetic control. Patients with diabetes have regular review appointments to monitor their overall health and discuss their HbA1c target and results.
The purpose of monitoring patients with diabetes is to improve patient outcomes. It is known that poor control is associated with poor clinical outcomes and also that reduced monitoring is linked to suboptimal diabetic control. Therefore, aiming for the correct monitoring frequency helps towards achieving the best control which can lead to the most favourable clinical outcomes.
The inconvenience of attending for a blood test and follow-up appointment is a major factor affecting patient adherence to monitoring, locally approximately 50% of patients with diabetes have their HbA1c level measured either too soon or too late.
To address this issue and improve access to monitoring at the correct time interval we aim to produce a HbA1c home testing kit which can be posted back to the laboratory at the convenience of the patient. The kit will be developed based on feedback from patients with diabetes and will use a dried blood spot sample to produce HbA1c results comparable to the whole blood standard method.REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EE/0250
Date of REC Opinion
30 Nov 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion