Effect of web-based education intervention on blood glucose control, self-care and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes: A single-blinded randomized controlled trial.

The trial was conducted at one centre in Turkey, so the results may not apply to other health systems. Participants had to be literate, use insulin, have a computer or mobile device and internet access, and have no cognitive, physical or mental impairments, so the findings do not address people who cannot use such technology or have more complex conditions. Follow-up was only 3 months, so persistence of effects beyond that period is unknown. The intervention was a package with several components, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Some participants did not attain the anticipated weekly website access, lost internet, withdrew or missed the post-test, which weakens confidence in real-world delivery. Participants were blinded to allocation and hypotheses, but the paper does not report blinding of outcome assessors or clinicians. The paper does not state a single primary outcome, so the relative importance of the metabolic, self-care and quality-of-life results is unclear. The authors' conclusion that blood glucose control improved is not supported by the between-group results for fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Do not conclude that this website improved blood glucose control compared with routine follow-up. The between-group differences for fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c were not statistically significant, and the study did not separate the effects of the website's access, forum, notifications and reminders.