Normoglycemia and Weight Reduction: Perspectives of People with Type 2 Diabetes in Australia.

Purpose: As more treatments become available to normalize glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and reduce weight, it is important to understand the meaningfulness of achieving target HbA1c levels and weight reduction from the perspective of people with type 2 diabetes.

Patients and methods: This is a cross-sectional survey of 300 Australians with type 2 diabetes.

Results: Achieving target HbA1c levels was meaningful to 90.0% (n=198) and moderately/very/extremely important to 94.5% (n=208) of the 220 participants with HbA1c >6.0%. Over half of the participants were dissatisfied with their current weight (n=158, 52.7%) and underreported their body mass index category (n=160, 53.3%). For 59.0% (n=177), a mean (±standard deviation) of 17.2 (±20.6) kg of weight loss was meaningful. Of these participants, 10.7%, 30.5%, 21.5%, and 37.3% viewed 5%, 5-10%, 10%-15%, and >15% of weight reduction as meaningful, respectively.

Conclusion: According to this survey, achieving target HbA1c levels is both meaningful and important to most people with type 2 diabetes. Achieving weight reduction is also seen as important despite frequent underrating of body mass index. Therapies targeting both target HbA1c levels and weight reduction may be of interest to people with type 2 diabetes in Australia, and this could impact medication adherence and health outcomes.