search
Back to results

Low Indexes of Metabolism - Information to Teams (LIMIT) (LIMIT)

Primary Purpose

Weight Loss, Thinness, Malnutrition

Status
Completed
Phase
Not Applicable
Locations
Study Type
Interventional
Intervention
Email
Sponsored by
Clalit Health Services
About
Eligibility
Locations
Arms
Outcomes
Full info

About this trial

This is an interventional treatment trial for Weight Loss focused on measuring Hypocholesterolemia, Frail Elderly, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cholesterol, Clinical Laboratory Information Systems, Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated, diet therapy, Anticholesteremic Agents, Health Services for the Aged, Hypoglycemic Agents, Hypoglycemia

Eligibility Criteria

75 Years - undefined (Older Adult)All SexesDoes not accept healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All found by computerized search in the data base of Clalit Health Services North and South districts:
  • 1. A drop in BMI of 2 Kg/m^2 or more during previous two years AND
  • BMI less than 23 Kg/m^2 AND
  • No dietitian counseling during previous year
  • OR
  • 2. Last HbA1c% level of 6.5% or less AND
  • dispensing anti-diabetic medicines during previous 2 months
  • OR
  • 3. Last total cholesterol less than 160 mg/dL AND
  • dispensing cholesterol-lowering medicines during previous 2 months

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients whose their primary doctor and nurse email address is unobtainable
  • For criterion 3: Patients diagnosed to have had a myocardial infarction, an ischemic heart disease, a transient ischemic attack or an ischemic stroke.

Sites / Locations

    Arms of the Study

    Arm 1

    Arm 2

    Arm Type

    Experimental

    No Intervention

    Arm Label

    Intervention Email

    Control

    Arm Description

    An email is sent, alerting the primary care providers about low values of BMI, HbA1c% or cholesterol and advising to consider appropriate dietary and medical revision.

    No email is sent.

    Outcomes

    Primary Outcome Measures

    Death From Any Cause
    Impact on overall-survival

    Secondary Outcome Measures

    Impact on Evaluation Rate
    Percentage of patients evaluated by a nurse and counseled by a dietitian
    Impact on Medical Costs
    Medical expenses to the medical insurer, including hospitalizations, consultations, examinations, devices and medicines.
    Impact on a Composite Measure of Medical Treatment
    A composite measure of doses of prescribed anti-diabetic and cholesterol-lowering medicines - According to relevant alert by email.

    Full Information

    First Posted
    June 11, 2015
    Last Updated
    March 28, 2020
    Sponsor
    Clalit Health Services
    search

    1. Study Identification

    Unique Protocol Identification Number
    NCT02476578
    Brief Title
    Low Indexes of Metabolism - Information to Teams (LIMIT)
    Acronym
    LIMIT
    Official Title
    Sending Advisory Electronic Mail to Primary Care Staff, Addressing Low Metabolic Measures: Assessing the Health Outcomes for Patients Above Age 75
    Study Type
    Interventional

    2. Study Status

    Record Verification Date
    March 2020
    Overall Recruitment Status
    Completed
    Study Start Date
    October 2015 (undefined)
    Primary Completion Date
    November 2016 (Actual)
    Study Completion Date
    November 2016 (Actual)

    3. Sponsor/Collaborators

    Responsible Party, by Official Title
    Principal Investigator
    Name of the Sponsor
    Clalit Health Services

    4. Oversight

    Data Monitoring Committee
    No

    5. Study Description

    Brief Summary
    The purpose of this study is to determine whether alerting primary care providers by email about low values of BMI, HbA1c% or cholesterol will affect treatment and improve overall survival and other health indexes of people older than 75 years.
    Detailed Description
    Scientific background Interventions aimed to ameliorate malnutrition are important for elderly health and include dietary counseling and discontinuing unnecessary medicines. Emailing an alert regarding low BMI was found to improve dietary counseling numbers. Correlation between death and HbA1c% is U-shaped, with increased mortality under a 6.5% level in patients taking two anti-diabetic medicines. Sending an email alert regarding an over-tight control of diabetes was followed by a reduction in mortality. Death and cholesterol correlation is also U-shaped, with increased mortality and morbidity under 160 mg%. The investigator found no interventional study for this situation. Objectives To check whether alerting the primary care providers by email, about low values of BMI, HbA1c% or cholesterol will affect treatment and improve health indexes of people older than 75 years. Working hypotheses During a year, and relative to the control group, intervention emails may result in the following: A decrease in mortality. An increase in dietary counseling percentage and a decrease in prescribing anti-diabetic and cholesterol-lowering medicines. A decrease in medical expenses and in other morbidity indexes. Type of research and methods of data collection This randomized controlled trial will be conducted entirely through the existing computer system. The participants (patients) will be assigned to the two Arms/Groups "Intervention Email" and "Control". It has three separate interventions: a. Alerting about a significant drop in BMI. b. Alerting about a low HbA1c% level in patients taking anti-diabetics. c. Alerting about a low cholesterol level in patients taking cholesterol-lowering medicines. The alerts will be sent to the primary clinicians. Method(s) of data analysis Differences between intervention groups and control groups will be analyzed using Chi-square test (or Fishers' exact test) for categorical variables and using T-test (or Two-sample Wilcoxon test) for continuous variables. Uniqueness and relevance Health service policy regarding signs of malnutrition and excessive medicinal treatment needs a relevant scientific knowledge base. Nutritional counseling and revision of medicinal treatment may dramatically affect health. This research deals with questions that have no commercial interest, but are important to the public.

    6. Conditions and Keywords

    Primary Disease or Condition Being Studied in the Trial, or the Focus of the Study
    Weight Loss, Thinness, Malnutrition
    Keywords
    Hypocholesterolemia, Frail Elderly, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cholesterol, Clinical Laboratory Information Systems, Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated, diet therapy, Anticholesteremic Agents, Health Services for the Aged, Hypoglycemic Agents, Hypoglycemia

    7. Study Design

    Primary Purpose
    Treatment
    Study Phase
    Not Applicable
    Interventional Study Model
    Parallel Assignment
    Masking
    None (Open Label)
    Allocation
    Randomized
    Enrollment
    8584 (Actual)

    8. Arms, Groups, and Interventions

    Arm Title
    Intervention Email
    Arm Type
    Experimental
    Arm Description
    An email is sent, alerting the primary care providers about low values of BMI, HbA1c% or cholesterol and advising to consider appropriate dietary and medical revision.
    Arm Title
    Control
    Arm Type
    No Intervention
    Arm Description
    No email is sent.
    Intervention Type
    Other
    Intervention Name(s)
    Email
    Other Intervention Name(s)
    "Dry Counseling"
    Intervention Description
    Automated Email to the primary doctor and nurse, with the details of the patient, the condition found and the relevant measures to consider.
    Primary Outcome Measure Information:
    Title
    Death From Any Cause
    Description
    Impact on overall-survival
    Time Frame
    1 year
    Secondary Outcome Measure Information:
    Title
    Impact on Evaluation Rate
    Description
    Percentage of patients evaluated by a nurse and counseled by a dietitian
    Time Frame
    1 year
    Title
    Impact on Medical Costs
    Description
    Medical expenses to the medical insurer, including hospitalizations, consultations, examinations, devices and medicines.
    Time Frame
    1 year
    Title
    Impact on a Composite Measure of Medical Treatment
    Description
    A composite measure of doses of prescribed anti-diabetic and cholesterol-lowering medicines - According to relevant alert by email.
    Time Frame
    1 year

    10. Eligibility

    Sex
    All
    Minimum Age & Unit of Time
    75 Years
    Accepts Healthy Volunteers
    No
    Eligibility Criteria
    Inclusion Criteria: All found by computerized search in the data base of Clalit Health Services North and South districts: 1. A drop in BMI of 2 Kg/m^2 or more during previous two years AND BMI less than 23 Kg/m^2 AND No dietitian counseling during previous year OR 2. Last HbA1c% level of 6.5% or less AND dispensing anti-diabetic medicines during previous 2 months OR 3. Last total cholesterol less than 160 mg/dL AND dispensing cholesterol-lowering medicines during previous 2 months Exclusion Criteria: Patients whose their primary doctor and nurse email address is unobtainable For criterion 3: Patients diagnosed to have had a myocardial infarction, an ischemic heart disease, a transient ischemic attack or an ischemic stroke.
    Overall Study Officials:
    First Name & Middle Initial & Last Name & Degree
    Nir Tsabar, MD/PhD
    Organizational Affiliation
    ClalitHS North District Principal Geriatrist
    Official's Role
    Principal Investigator

    12. IPD Sharing Statement

    Plan to Share IPD
    Yes
    IPD Sharing Plan Description
    The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request to email nir.tsabar@clalit.org.il. Shared data will not include exact dates, exact lab results or any data that might expose the identity of patients. Also, commercial data such as drug brands or costs may not be shared.
    IPD Sharing Time Frame
    After publishing the results in a peer reviewed journal.
    IPD Sharing Access Criteria
    Any clinical researcher; Any ethically approved clinical research
    Citations:
    PubMed Identifier
    23280227
    Citation
    Flegal KM, Kit BK, Orpana H, Graubard BI. Association of all-cause mortality with overweight and obesity using standard body mass index categories: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2013 Jan 2;309(1):71-82. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.113905.
    Results Reference
    background
    PubMed Identifier
    25277380
    Citation
    Giovannelli J, Coevoet V, Vasseur C, Gheysens A, Basse B, Houyengah F. How can screening for malnutrition among hospitalized patients be improved? An automatic e-mail alert system when admitting previously malnourished patients. Clin Nutr. 2015 Oct;34(5):868-73. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2014.09.008. Epub 2014 Sep 18.
    Results Reference
    background
    PubMed Identifier
    7586337
    Citation
    Iribarren C, Reed DM, Chen R, Yano K, Dwyer JH. Low serum cholesterol and mortality. Which is the cause and which is the effect? Circulation. 1995 Nov 1;92(9):2396-403. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.92.9.2396.
    Results Reference
    background
    PubMed Identifier
    20110121
    Citation
    Currie CJ, Peters JR, Tynan A, Evans M, Heine RJ, Bracco OL, Zagar T, Poole CD. Survival as a function of HbA(1c) in people with type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet. 2010 Feb 6;375(9713):481-9. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61969-3. Epub 2010 Jan 26.
    Results Reference
    background
    PubMed Identifier
    31588026
    Citation
    Tsabar N, Press Y, Rotman J, Klein B, Grossman Y, Vainshtein-Tal M, Eilat-Tsanani S. A Randomized Trial of Alerting to Low Glycated Hemoglobin Level in Older Adults: Results of the Low Indexes of Metabolism Intervention Trial B (LIMIT-B). J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2020 Feb;21(2):277-280.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2019.08.004. Epub 2019 Oct 3.
    Results Reference
    result
    PubMed Identifier
    31610995
    Citation
    Tsabar N, Press Y, Rotman J, Klein B, Grossman Y, Vainshtein-Tal M, Eilat-Tsanani S. A Randomized Trial of Alerting to Hypocholesterolemia Results of the Low Indexes of Metabolism Intervention Trial-C (LIMIT-C). J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2020 Mar;21(3):410-414. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2019.08.018. Epub 2019 Oct 12.
    Results Reference
    result
    PubMed Identifier
    32064727
    Citation
    Tsabar N, Press Y, Rotman J, Klein B, Grossman Y, Vainshtein-Tal M, Eilat-Tsanani S. Randomized trial results of alerting primary clinicians to severe weight loss among older adults in the Low Indexes of Metabolism Intervention Trial part A. Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2020 Apr;20(4):329-335. doi: 10.1111/ggi.13888. Epub 2020 Feb 16.
    Results Reference
    result
    PubMed Identifier
    29301522
    Citation
    Tsabar N, Press Y, Rotman J, Klein B, Grossman Y, Vainshtein-Tal M, Eilat-Tsanani S. The low indexes of metabolism intervention trial (LIMIT): design and baseline data of a randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate how alerting primary care teams to low metabolic values, could affect the health of patients aged 75 or older. BMC Health Serv Res. 2018 Jan 5;18(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s12913-017-2812-0.
    Results Reference
    derived
    Links:
    URL
    http://www.health.gov.il/Publicationsfiles/qindicatorsReport2008-2010.pdf
    Description
    Israel National Program for Quality Indicators in Community Healthcare
    Available IPD and Supporting Information:
    Available IPD/Information Type
    Study Protocol
    Available IPD/Information URL
    https://goo.gl/B6j1oF
    Available IPD/Information Comments
    LIMIT HEBREW PROTOCOL Version 3 (Final)

    Learn more about this trial

    Low Indexes of Metabolism - Information to Teams (LIMIT)

    We'll reach out to this number within 24 hrs