The Effect of Health Education-based Telenursing on the Public Knowledge of COVID-19 Preventive Strategies in the Elderly with Type II DM

Abstract

Preventative efforts taken by the elderly with diabetes mellitus against COVID-19 are a balanced diet, routine activities, taking regular medication, and vaccinations. Health education is very important during the pandemic. This study aimed to identify the effect of telenursing-based health education on knowledge about COVID-19 prevention strategies in the elderly with comorbid diabetes mellitus. This study was a pre-experiment with a pre-test-post-test one-group design. The population in this study were all randomly selected communities consisting of students and practitioners with a total sampling technique of 150 people. The results of the paired sample t-test have a difference of two means. The average difference in knowledge before education was 33.16, while the average knowledge after attending the education was 71.72. The average difference in knowledge before and after joining the education was 38.56, and the p-value was 0.0005. There is a difference in knowledge before and after attending a health education, which means that the public knowledge about COVID-19 preventive strategies in the elderly with type II diabetes mellitus is better after being given health education. Health education based in technology or telenursing is the right way to promote health by increasing knowledge in the pandemic era. Keywords: Covid-19 preventive, public knowledge of COVID-19, telenursing education