What do we know about this topic so far?
A large RCT supports the findings of this paper which suggests that patients can be moved from one stage of change to another and that this can be beneficial [13]. The longitudinal comparisons of the stage of change shifts from Figures Figures2,2, ,33 and and44 illustrated these patterns which add support to the intervention model and its theory. A crossover pattern [14] was observed wherein the number of patients in the precontemplation, contemplation and preparation stages (collectively) decreased while there was a simultaneous increase in the number of patients in the action and maintenance stages (collectively) at the end of the study.
In that publication application of a stage of change model based intervention resulted in a greater reduction of HbA1c than standard care, but this did not reach statistical significance [13]. So this paper adds to the literature by illustrating that a statistically significant difference between intervention and controls can be achieved (even though there are limits to our results as we saw above).