Changes in HbA1c and diabetes‐specific quality of life following structured type 1 diabetes education: Exploratory latent profile analysis of outcomes in the DAFNE plus trial

AIMS: To identify meaningful clusters of participants with shared baseline characteristics (demographic, clinical, and psychological) from a sample of adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) completing dose adjustment for normal eating (DAFNE) structured T1D education, or the updated DAFNEplus programme. Further, to determine whether those clusters respond differently, at 6- and 12 months, to DAFNE and DAFNEplus on core outcomes: HbA1c and diabetes-specific quality of life (QoL). METHODS: Latent profile analysis was conducted on the DAFNEplus randomised control trial dataset using relevant indicator variables (age; HbA1c; hypoglycaemia awareness; diabetes-specific QoL, distress, and positive well-being; fear of hypoglycaemia; satisfaction with diabetes management). Model fit indices were used to select the optimal number of clusters and multilevel linear regression models to estimate the effect of DAFNEplus (compared with DAFNE) on HbA1c and diabetes-specific QoL in each cluster. RESULTS: A total of n = 363 participants were included in the analysis (n = 147, 40% randomised to DAFNEplus). The final model included two clusters: the first was consistently worse off on clinical and psychological indicator variables. The multilevel analysis showed a significant adjusted mean difference, at 12 months (first cluster only), between DAFNE and DAFNEplus in diabetes-specific QoL (0.81; 95% CI: 0.19-1.43; p = 0.01), but not at other time points or in HbA1c. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that DAFNEplus has significant added benefits in reducing the negative impact of diabetes on QoL for a subgroup of adults with T1D, but not for their HbA1c. This provides important insights for the future real-world implementation of the DAFNEplus programme.