A  Decade long Diabetes Control and Complications Trial or DCCT which was followed by Epidemiology of Diabetes Control and Complications (EDIC) study reveals that reducing HbA1c to 7% rather as compared to the standard practice to 9% in Type I diabetes reduced the complications from 35% to 75%. It established the importance of intensive therapy as the criteria for care.

At the American Diabetes Association meeting in 2013, researchers had reported that diabetics on intensive therapy had a 46% reduced risk of retinopathy, 39% reduced risk of microalbuminuria and 61% reduced risk of macroalbuminuria.

The trial involved 1,441 ‘type I Diabetic’ subjects with no complications at baseline. The subjects were randomized for both intensive and conventional treatment for an average of 6.5 years and all the data collated from 1429 patients at the end of the follow up totaled 27 years.

The study reveals that the intense control group had significantly lower risk of death. Higher HbA1c levels were associated with all-cause mortality