The primary objective was to compare treatment groups with regard to the time to treatment failure, defined as a persistently elevated glycated hemoglobin level (≥8%) over a period of 6 months or persistent metabolic decompensation (defined as either the inability to wean the participant from insulin within 3 months after its initiation for decompensation or the occurrence of a second episode of decompensation within 3 months after discontinuation of insulin). Glycated hemoglobin testing was performed every 2 months in the first year and quarterly thereafter. Diabetes care was provided according to uniform study procedures7 (see Section B in the Supplementary Appendix). Adherence was determined on the basis of counts of pills in blister packs that were dispensed and returned full, partially full, or empty at each visit, with a target of at least 80% adherence.
The study protocol (available at NEJM.org) was approved by the institutional review board of each participating institution. The parents of children and adolescents who participated in the study provided written informed consent, and the children and adolescents provided their assent. Safety and risk management were monitored by the independent data and safety monitoring board. Serious adverse events were reported as they occurred. In addition to the standard monitoring of serious adverse events, three study-specific serious adverse events were tracked: severe hypoglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis, and lactic acidosis.
The steering committee, composed of the principal investigator at each clinical site and at the data coordinating center and the project scientist from the sponsor (NIDDK), designed and implemented the study. The data coordinating center accumulated data in a central database during the study and performed data analyses according to a prespecified plan developed by the biostatisticians at the data coordinating center and approved by the steering committee and the data and safety monitoring board. The study investigators, who had access to all data analyses and wrote the manuscript, attest to the veracity and completeness of the data and the fidelity of the study to the protocol. The decision to submit the manuscript for publication was made by the steering committee, with no restrictions imposed by the sponsor. The data were analyzed by two members of the writing group. The drugs used in the study were donated by pharmaceutical manufacturers (listed at the end of the article), which had no role in the study design, data accrual, data analysis, or manuscript preparation.