Critical comments regarding the assessment of quality of life and the clinical impact of the POWER2DM intervention

Excerpt

To the Editor: Diabetes self-management can be complex and burdensome, as it requires sufficient knowledge and skills and a significant amount of time and effort. Psychological barriers such as elevated diabetes distress or depression can constitute key barriers that hamper self-management [1, 2]. Therefore, Ruissen et al [3] are to be lauded, as they have recently published an article describing the results of an important RCT that investigated the impact of POWER2DM. POWER2DM [3] is an e-health system ‘that integrates medical, psychological and behavioural aspects and connected wearables to support patients and healthcare professionals in shared decision making and diabetes self-management’. However, the accurate assessment and transparent reporting of quality of life outcomes in clinical trials are pivotal. In our letter to the Editor, we wish to respectfully express concerns about this study, particularly around the measurement of quality of life and the associated magnitude of the effect. …