Adult ; Aged ; Blood Glucose ; Community Health Nursing* ; Diabetes Mellitus/nursing* ; Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Male ; Patient Education as Topic/methods* ; Patient-Centered Care* ; Poverty* ; Republic of Korea ; Self Care
OBJECTIVE: To describe the effects of individually tailored education by visiting nurses for low-income adult diabetic patients.
DESIGN AND SAMPLE: This one-group pretest-posttest study included 96 newly registered low-income adult diabetic patients in a public health center in DJ-gu (similar to a county in the United States) in 2006; the patients met the selection criteria.
MEASURES: Diabetes knowledge, self-management, and blood glucose levels were compared before and after education.
INTERVENTION: 15 visiting nurses delivered individually tailored education for 60-90 min/month for 7 months.
RESULTS: After education, diabetes knowledge (p<.001) and self-management in all categories of lifestyle (p<.001), diet (p<.001), exercise (p<.001), foot care (p<.001), medication (p=.004), and insulin therapy (p=.022) significantly improved. The mean fasting blood glucose (FBG) level decreased by 14.53 mg/dl; this decrease was insignificant (p=.117). However, the relationship between education and FBG levels was significant (χ(2)=40.11, p=.005).
CONCLUSIONS: Tailored education effectively improved the patients' knowledge of diabetes and self-management. Therefore, regular, individually tailored education on a long-term basis by visiting nurses can provide essential education to low-income adult diabetic patients for maintaining self-management.