MONDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- Just three sessions of diabetes education can improve the metabolic control of patients with type 2 diabetes, indicating that client-centered diabetes care programs can help such patients improve their health profile, according to a study published the August issue of Applied Nursing Research.
Mukadder Mollaoglu, Ph.D., and Emel Beyazit, R.N., of Cumhuriyet University in Sivas, Turkey, conducted a study of 50 patients with type 2 diabetes, of whom 25 were randomized to receive three sessions of diabetes education with a nurse educator, while the remaining 25 acted as the control group.
Compared to the controls, the patients in the education group experienced significant improvements in fasting blood sugar, postprandial blood sugar, urine glucose, hemoglobin A1c, triglyceride, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, the researchers found.
"Our study illustrates that the client-centered, self-care focused, home-based intervention that is given by nurses to individuals with diabetes can also help to achieve and maintain normal metabolic values," the authors write. "Nurses need to actively lobby for the expansion of home-based intervention so that their clients will be able to receive self-care focused rehabilitation. This service should also include enhanced inpatient planning of metabolic control and community reintegration following discharge and greater follow-up postdischarge."
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