Impact of a structured multicomponent educational intervention program on metabolic control of patients with type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic disorders, with a high prevalence of patients with poor metabolic control. Worldwide, evidence highlights the importance of developing and implementing educational interventions that can reduce this burden. The main objective of this study was to analyse the impact of a lifestyle centred intervention on glycaemic control of poorly controlled type 2 diabetic patients, followed in a Community Care Centre. Methods: A type 2 experimental design was conducted over 6months, including 122 adults with HbA1c≥7.5%, randomly allocated into Experimental group (EG) or Control Group (CG). EG patients attended a specific Educational Program while CG patients frequented usual care. Personal and health characterization variables, clinical metrics and self-care activities were measured before and after the implementation of the intervention. Analysis was done by comparing gains between groups (CG vs EG) through differential calculations (post minus pre-test results) and Longitudinal analysis. Results: Statistical differences were obtained between groups for HbA1c and BMI: EG had a decrease in 11% more (effect-size r2=.11) than CG for HbA1c (p