Improving Diabetes Self-Management with a Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Program: Final Results of a Pilot Program at a Safety Net Health Care System

New York City Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H) is the largest safety net healthcare system in the nation, serving more than one million patients each year. Most of NYC H+H’s patients are low-income and people of color, who, in NYC as in the rest of the nation, bear a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases. At NYC H+H, 18% of patients have diagnosed diabetes, and nearly 23,000 (39%) of the 59,000 patients monitored in NYC H+H’s diabetes registry have poorly controlled diabetes (A1c ≥ 8). In an effort to support these patients’ diabetes management between their regular visits, NYC H+H launched a pilot program of InquisitHealth, a one-on-one peer mentoring service that matches patients with mentors who have controlled their own diabetes and received training to become peer coaches. Several small, randomized, controlled trials have demonstrated the program’s effectiveness in reducing A1c, but there is limited evidence of its effectiveness in a real-word setting. The key aims of this pilot program were to: 1) bridge the gap between patients and providers outside of clinic visits, 2) increase patient education on and support for diabetes self-management, and 3) improve patients’ diabetes outcomes as evidenced by reductions in A1c. The pilot program enrolled 336 patients at two NYC H+H facilities for a twelve-month intervention. Among the first 180 patients enrolled at one large acute care hospital, the mean reduction in A1c from baseline to six months following enrollment was 1.08. As compared to propensity score-matched control patients at a similar non-participating hospital in the NYC H+H network, participants experienced a greater reduction in A1c of 0.61 (-1.08 vs. -0.47, p<0.01). Results from the 12-month final analysis of all participants will be presented. Disclosure R. Kalyanaraman marcello: None. J. Dolle: None. S. Kaur: None. S. R. Patterson: None. N. Davis: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001445)