Optimal Frequency of Urinary Albumin Screening in Type 1 Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Kidney disease screening recommendations include annual urine testing for albuminuria after 5 years' duration of type 1 diabetes. We aimed to determine a simple, risk factor-based screening schedule that optimizes early detection and testing frequency. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Urinary albumin excretion measurements from 1,343 participants in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial and its long-term follow-up were used to create piecewise-exponential incidence models assuming 6-month constant hazards. Likelihood of the onset of moderately or severely elevated albuminuria (confirmed albumin excretion rate AER ≥30 or ≥300 mg/24 h, respectively) and its risk factors were used to identify individualized screening schedules. Time with undetected albuminuria and number of tests were compared with annual screening. RESULTS: The 3-year cumulative incidence of elevated albuminuria following normoalbuminuria at any time during the study was 3.2%, which was strongly associated with higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and AER. Personalized screening in 2 years for those with current AER ≤10 mg/24 h and HbA1c ≤8% (low risk [0.6% three-year cumulative incidence]), in 6 months for those with AER 21-30 mg/24 h or HbA1c ≥9% (high risk [8.9% three-year cumulative incidence]), and in 1 year for all others (average risk [2.4% three-year cumulative incidence]) was associated with 34.9% reduction in time with undetected albuminuria and 20.4% reduction in testing frequency as compared with annual screening. Stratification by categories of HbA1c or AER alone was associated with reductions of lesser magnitude. CONCLUSIONS: A personalized alternative to annual screening in type 1 diabetes can substantially reduce both the time with undetected kidney disease and the frequency of urine testing. ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS: Kidney disease screening recommendations include annual urine testing for albuminuria after 5 years' duration of type 1 diabetes. We investigated simple screening schedules that optimize early detection and testing frequency. Personalized screening in 2 years for those with current AER ≤10 mg/24 h and HbA1c ≤8%, in 6 months for those with AER 21-30 mg/24 h or HbA1c ≥9%, and in 1 year for all others yielded 34.9% reduction in time with undetected albuminuria and 20.4% fewer evaluations compared with annual screening. A personalized alternative to annual screening in type 1 diabetes can substantially reduce both the time with undetected kidney disease and the frequency of urine testing.

Changes in mood and health-related quality of life in Look AHEAD 6 years after termination of the lifestyle intervention.

OBJECTIVE: The Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) study previously reported that intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) reduced incident depressive symptoms and improved health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over nearly 10 years of intervention compared with a control group (the diabetes support and education group [DSE]) in participants with type 2 diabetes and overweight or obesity. The present study compared incident depressive symptoms and changes in HRQOL in these groups for an additional 6 years following termination of the ILI in September 2012. METHODS: A total of 1,945 ILI participants and 1,900 DSE participants completed at least one of four planned postintervention assessments at which weight, mood (via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9), antidepressant medication use, and HRQOL (via the Medical Outcomes Scale, Short Form-36) were measured. RESULTS: ILI participants and DSE participants lost 3.1 (0.3) and 3.8 (0.3) kg [represented as mean (SE); p = 0.10], respectively, during the 6-year postintervention follow-up. No significant differences were observed between groups during this time in incident mild or greater symptoms of depression, antidepressant medication use, or in changes on the physical component summary or mental component summary scores of the Short Form-36. In both groups, mental component summary scores were higher than physical component summary scores. CONCLUSIONS: Prior participation in the ILI, compared with the DSE group, did not appear to improve subsequent mood or HRQOL during 6 years of postintervention follow-up.