Older Age Is No Barrier to Improvements in Glycemia in People with Diabetes When Using a Diabetes App with a Bluetooth® Connected Blood Glucose Meter

Background: Real-world evidence on technology use by older people with diabetes (PWDs) is sparse. We show that using the OneTouch Reveal® (OTR) diabetes app with Bluetooth® connected blood glucose meters improves diabetes management in older PWDs. Methods: Anonymized glucose and app analytics from 160,545 PWDs, including 63,621 PWDs ≥65 years, were extracted from our server. Data from their first 14 days using the OTR app was compared with 14 days prior to a 180-day timepoint using paired within-subject differences. Results: Data was retrieved from 133,817 people with type 2 diabetes (PwT2D; 78,167 <65 years and 55,650 ≥65 years) and 26,728 people with type 1 diabetes (PwT1D; 18,757 <65 years and 7971 ≥65 years). PwT2D ≥65 years improved blood glucose readings in range (RIR, 70–180mg/dL) at 180-days by +9.3 percentage points (%pts, 72.0 to 81.3%) and PwT1D improved by +5.2 %pts (60.6 to 65.9%). RIR progressively improved with higher app engagement in PwT2D ≥65 years, ranging from +7.2 %pts in those performing <1 app session per week to +11.4 %pts in those performing >10 sessions per week. RIR also progressively improved in PwT1D ≥65 years from +1.3 %pts with <1 session per week to +9.2 %pts in those performing >10 sessions per week. These glycemic changes were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The proportion of hypoglycemic readings remained largely unchanged. Conclusions: Sustained improvements in glycemia showed progressive gains with stronger engagement with a diabetes app in PWDs ≥65 years, giving credence to the view that age is no barrier when using diabetes technology.