Prediction of People With Type 2 Diabetes Not Achieving HbA1c Target After Initiation of Fast-Acting Insulin Therapy: Using Machine Learning Framework on Clinical Trial Data.

Background and aims: Glycemic control is crucial for people with type 2 diabetes. However, only about half achieve the advocated HbA1c target of ≤7%. Identifying those who will probably struggle to reach this target may be valuable as they require additional support. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a model to predict people with type 2 diabetes not achieving HbA1c target after initiating fast-acting insulin.

Methods: Data from a randomized controlled trial (NCT01819129) of participants with type 2 diabetes initiating fast-acting insulin were used. Data included demographics, clinical laboratory values, self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG), health-related quality of life (SF-36), and body measurements. A logistic regression was developed to predict HbA1c target nonachievers. A potential of 196 features was input for a forward feature selection. To assess the performance, a 20-repeated stratified 5-fold cross-validation with area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC) was used.

Results: Out of the 467 included participants, 98 (21%) did not achieve HbA1c target of ≤7%. The forward selection identified 7 features: baseline HbA1c (%), mean postprandial SMBG at all meals 3 consecutive days before baseline (mmol/L), sex, no ketones in urine, baseline albumin (g/dL), baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (mmol/L), and traces of protein in urine. The model had an AUROC of 0.745 [95% CI = 0.734, 0.756].

Conclusions: The model was able to predict those who did not achieve HbA1c target with promising performance, potentially enabling early identification of people with type 2 diabetes who require additional support to reach glycemic control.