Effect of early multifactorial therapy compared with routine care on microvascular outcomes at 5 years in people with screen-detected diabetes: A randomized controlled trial. The ADDITION-Europe study

OBJECTIVE: To determine the benefit of multifactorial treatment on microvascular complications among people with type 2 diabetes detected by screening. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This study was a multicenter cluster randomized controlled trial in primary care with randomization at the practice level. In four centers in Denmark; Cambridge, U.K.; the Netherlands; and Leicester, U.K., 343 general practices participated in the trial. Eligible for follow-up were 2,861 of the 3,057 people with diabetes detected by screening included in the original trial. Biomedical data on nephropathy were collected in 2,710 (94.7%) participants, retinal photos in 2,190 (76.6%), and questionnaire data on peripheral neuropathy in 2,312 (80.9%). The prespecified microvascular end points were analyzed by intention to treat. Results from the four centers were pooled using fixed-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: Five years after diagnosis, any kind of albuminuria was present in 22.7% of participants in the intensive treatment (IT) group and in 24.4% in the routine care (RC) group (odds ratio 0.87 [95% CI 0.72-1.07]). Retinopathy was present in 10.2% of the IT group and 12.1% of the RC group (0.84 [0.64-1.10]), and severe retinopathy was present in one patient in the IT group and seven in the RC group. Neuropathy was present in 4.9% and 5.9% (0.95 [0.68 -1.34]), respectively. Estimated glomerular filtration rate increased between baseline and follow-up in both groups (4.31 and 6.44 mL/min, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with RC, an intervention to promote target-driven, intensive management of patients with type 2 diabetes detected by screening was not associated with significant reductions in the frequency of microvascular events at 5 years.