Table 2.

Schedule of enrolment, interventions, and assessments

		STUDY PERIOD
	Enrolment	Baseline Assessment	Allocation	Intervention	Follow-up
TIMEPOINT (T for Month)	T−2	T−1	T0	T1–3	At end of T3	At end of T6	At end of T12
ENROLMENT:
Eligibility screen	X
Informed consent	X
ALLOCATION			X
INTERVENTION:
Couple-based Intervention Group				X
Individual-based Control Group				X
ASSESSMENTS AND MEASUREMENT:
Baseline socio-demographics: age, gender, marital status, education, retirement status, etc.	X
Mental health: C-MMSE, CES-D		X
Primary outcomes:
Blood glucose a: HbA1c		X				X	X
Quality of life: SF-36		X				X	X
Secondary outcomes:
Metabolic measures: BP, BMI, WHR, FG & lipid		X					X
Management behaviours a: SDSCA		X			X	X	X
Medication adherence a: BMQ & medical records		X			X	X	X
Physical activity b: IPAQ-C		X			X	X	X
Dietary b:FFQ		X				X	X
Process measures:
Management efficacy b: C-DMSES		X			X	X	X
Dyadic appraisal & coping b: Communal coping & support		X			X	X	X

C-MMSE Chinese Mini-Mental State Examination, CES-D the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, HbA1c hemoglobin A_1c, SF-36 36-item short form survey, BP blood pressure, BMI body mass index, WHR waist hip ratio, FG fasting glucose, SDSCA summary of diabetes self-care activities, BMQ brief medication questionnaire, IPAQ-C International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Chinese, FFQ food frequency questionnaire, C-DMSES the Chinese version of the Diabetes Management Self-efficacy Scale

^a Measure for patients only

^b Repeat measure for spouses of the control arm only at baseline and 12 months