Prevention of Hypoglycemia Among Diabetes Patients Admitted to Internal Medicine Departments With Nutritional Care

Summary

This is a prospective randomized study to evaluate the efficacy of nutritional intervention for the prevention of hypoglycemia among diabetes patients with low albumin level that are admitted to internal medicine units, regardless of the reason for admission. All patients suitable for participation in the study will be asked to participate and be randomized to the interventional arm or the control arm.

After admission to the internal medicine unit, eligible patients will be asked to participate in the study. After signing an informed consent form, patients will be randomized to the treatment or control arms. For patients allocated to the treatment arm, the physician in charge will prescribe 2 portions of GlucernaTM per day as part of the treatment protocol. The nurse in charge of the patient (at either the morning or evening shifts) will make sure the patient is receiving and consuming the ONS.

For every patient included in the interventional arm, 2 bottles of GlucernaTM will be supplied to the patient, one at 08:00 with the morning medications, and one at 16:00 with the evening medications. For clarification purposes, the GlucernaTM will be supplied on top of the designated meal plan, as "over-feeding". Evaluation of adequate ONS consumption will be performed 2-3 hours after the dispensing of the ONS (at 10:00-11:00 and 19:00-21:00), and the amount consumed will be documented.

Patients in the control arm will receive no oral nutritional supplementation, and their caloric intake will be composed of the food supplied by the hospital. Other analysis will be considered usual care. Additional diet consultations as requested by the medical staff will constitute usual care, and the patient will continue the study.

The duration of ONS treatment will be the entire length of hospital stay. Upon discharge, a recommendation to continue nutritional care will be added to the patients' discharge letters but no oral nutritional supplement (ONS) will be prescribed or dispensed.

Following discharge, a 30-day follow-up call will be made to ascertain whether the patient is alive, whether the patient was re-admitted or re-hospitalized, and the usage of ONS prescribed by the family/general practitioner that was consumed after the hospital discharge.

Conditions

• Hypoglycemia
• Malnutrition; Diabetes

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Glucerna

1 bottle in the morning with breakfast and 1 bottle in the evening with dinner

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Abbott Nutrition

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Eyal Leibovitz

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Eyal Leibovitz, MD · Yoseftal Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-07-01

Primary Completion

2022-12-31

Completion

2023-12-31

Countries

• Israel

Study Locations