Educational interventions for knowledge on the disease, treatment adherence and control of diabetes mellitus.
Ana Laura Galhardo Figueira, Lilian Cristiane Gomes Villas Boas, Anna Claudia Martins Coelho and 2 others
PMID 28443992WHAT IT FOUND
After 12 months of group Diabetes Conversation Map sessions, people with type 2 diabetes had better disease knowledge, better oral medication adherence and lower HbA1c.
Insulin adherence did not show a clear change.
Key findings
01Mean Diabetes Knowledge Scale score increased from 9.44 to 10.8 out of 15 after the educational sessions.
02Mean oral antidiabetic adherence score increased from 5.62 to 5.72 on a 1 to 6 scale, while insulin adherence did not show a significant change.
03Mean HbA1c decreased from 9.3% to 8.94% after the educational sessions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
It was a single comparison group study, so the paper does not show that the education alone produced the changes. Of 114 people drafted for the study, 32 quit, leaving 82 who completed it, so the results reflect those who stayed. The authors state that exclusions, refusals and losses make the sample too small to generalise to the wider diabetes population. Participants had long-standing diabetes and many used insulin, and the study was done in a tertiary care service, which may have influenced the results. HbA1c remained above the <7% target, and insulin adherence did not change significantly.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that Diabetes Conversation Maps alone caused the improvements. The study was a single comparison group before-after study, and insulin adherence did not show a clear change.