Educational text messaging to improve knowledge and self-care practices among adults with Type 2 Diabetes
Date
Authors
ORCID
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
DOI
Abstract
Poor diabetes knowledge and self-care practices are correlated with impaired glycemic control and vascular complications among patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes education interventions are essential to improve diabetes self-management and reduce overall mortality; however, time pressures imposed upon healthcare providers limit the amount and quality of education provided in the primary care setting. The purpose of this project was to determine if an educational text messaging intervention would improve diabetes knowledge and self-care practices among patients with type 2 diabetes in a rural primary care clinic. A pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design was utilized and twenty patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited for this project. Three distinct educational text messages were disseminated weekly for 12 weeks. Six educational domains were addressed: nutrition, physical activity, foot care, blood sugar management, behavioral support, and general diabetes knowledge. Pre- and post-intervention measures consisted of diabetes knowledge and self-care participation questionnaires. From pretest to posttest, considerable improvements were observed in diabetes knowledge scores (13.3% increase), the number of days per week participants engaged in healthy (general) eating habits (15.7% increase), and the number of days per week participants engaged in foot care practices (21.4% increase). The results of this project indicate that educational text messaging can improve diabetes knowledge, general eating habits, and foot care practices among patients with type 2 diabetes in a rural primary care clinic. Based on these findings, we recommend integrating educational text messaging into clinical practice.