The Effect of Intensive Education on Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Background: To this date, efforts to develop effective methods for the education of diabetic patients have been limited. The important goal of self-management and weight control for diabetic treatment can not be attained without long and intensive period of education. This study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of an intensive educational program, on an out-patient basis. We compared the effectiveness an intensive education programme with that of a conventional education grogramme for the self-management of type 2 diabetic patients Methods: Subjects with type 2 diabetes were randomly selected, and allocated to one of two groups. One group received a conventional education programme of self-management (the CE group), and the second group received an intensive education programmes for three months, after which the effectiveness of the programmes were evaluated. Results: 1) The levels of fasting blood sugar (FBS), postprandial 2 hour blood sugar (PP2h) and HbA1c were significantly lowered in both groups following the intervention (p<0.05). In the IE group, the FBS declined from 12.4 nmol/L to 7.7 nmol/L, PP2h declined from 20.3 nmol/L to 10.9 nmol/L and the HbA1c showed a similar decline from 9. to 7.0% after intervention (p<0.05). In the CE group, the FBS declined from 10.9 to 9.4 nmol/l, the PP2h decreased from 17.1 to 14.6nmol/l, and the HbA1c also decreased from 8.5 to 7.3% after intervention (p<0.05). The decrease in the FBS and HbA1c following the educational intervention was more pronounced in the IE group than the CE group (p<0.05). 2) The effectiveness of the education programmes in promoting appropriate dietary behavior in the diabetic subjects was assessed by a scoring system in three parts: a regularity score, a balance score and an attitude score. From a comparative study of the three scores, the patients attitudes were observed to be much improved in both the groups following the intervention compared to before the programmes, but the balance and total scores were significantly higher in the IE group than the CE group (p<0.05). Conclusion: We can conclude that the intensive diabetic education programme is more effective than a conventional programme, not only in improved the patient’ levels of glucose, HbA1c, and dietary score, but also the diabetic patients self-control abilities, promoting behavioral change, and prompting problem solving capabilities in respect to the everyday problems that they have to face throughout their lives.