TITLE:
Knowledge about Diabetes Mellitus and Self-Care Activities before and after an Educational Program: A Pilot Study
AUTHORS:
Nathália Martins de Moraes, Gislaine Faustino Pereira de Souza, Fernando Inocêncio de Brito, Maurício Eduardo Antonio Júnior, Alinson Eduardo Cipriano, Nilo Sérgio Vieira Costa, Tiago Marques de Rezende, Autran José da Silva Júnior, Lilian Cristiane Gomes
KEYWORDS:
Diabetes Mellitus, Knowledge, Self-Care, Health Education, Nursing Care
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.10 No.2,
February
14,
2020
ABSTRACT: Background: Health education has proven to be an effective strategy to enable people with diabetes mellitus to manage this condition. However, few studies in Brazilian population samples have been conducted to evaluate the effects of educational programs on diabetes knowledge and self-care. Aim: To evaluate the knowledge about diabetes mellitus and the performance of self-care activities, before and after participation in an educational program. Methods: This is an intervention study, with a quantitative approach, in a single comparison group, for the analysis of “before and after” results related to an educational program focused on self-care and concurrent physical training. The study interventions consisted of 42 exercise sessions, as well as individual educational meetings, according to the needs of each participant and through nursing consultations, using educational material prepared from the literature. The sample was initially composed of 33 adults with diabetes mellitus, but 18 completed the study. For the assessment of knowledge and self-care activities, the revised Brazilian versions of the Diabetes Knowledge Scale and the Diabetes Self-Care Activity Questionnaire were used, respectively, in the two moments of the study, that is, prior to the first educational meeting and immediately before the first physical training session, and after the last educational meeting, which ran parallel to the 42nd physical training session, making a six-month interval between the two assessment moments for each participant. Results: The analysis of knowledge about diabetes showed significant improvement after the educational program and, as for self-care, there was clinical improvement in all dimensions, but only the dimension “general diet” obtained statistically significant improvement. Conclusion: The educational program has been shown to be beneficial for improving knowledge and self-care of the disease, which reiterates the need to maintain interventions of this nature for people with diabetes mellitus.