Novel Patient‐Centered Diabetes Education Program: A Study to Assess The Feasibility, Design, Implementation, and Impact On Patients

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) continues to be a growing public health concern and will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030. Education programs have shown to be moderately effective in disease management, but there are little known about interactive patient‐centered diabetes programs. This study implemented a single‐group pretest‐posttest quasi‐experimental design including a three‐session novel patient‐centered diabetes education program at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Medical Center using the model originally developed by Esden and Nichols. Measurements were obtained using validated and reliable instruments from Michigan Diabetes Research Training Center (MDRTC), which included the Brief Diabetes Knowledge Test (BDKT) and Diabetes Empowerment Scale (DES), and a participant satisfaction survey. Results showed participants’ knowledge of diabetes was higher at three months follow up (M = 17; SD = 4.64) than at baseline/pretest (M = 13.8; SD = 2.95) with a 23 percent change in knowledge scores from baseline 95% CI [0.24,6.16], with corrected Cohen’s dunbiased = 0.66 (i.e., medium effect). There was very good pre‐test reliability for the DES subscales: “managing the psychosocial aspects of diabetes” (0.93), “assessing dissatisfaction and readiness to change (0.83), “setting and achieving goals” (0.88). Despite moderate effects in these 3 subscales, there were no statistically significant differences in posttest scores. In conclusion, Esden and Nichol’s model was successfully replicated in the VA Heath Care setting, and future work with a larger sample size and matched control is needed to further validate the results found in this study.