Patients Benefit from
Diabetes Education Program
Excerpt By Keith Mulvihill, Reuters Health

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters Health) - A pilot education program at one inner-city medical practice has helped type 2 diabetes patients reign in their blood sugar levels and improved screening for common diabetes complications, according to researchers.

Now they hope that their specially tailored program for both patients and physicians can be exported to other doctors' practices.

"We provided reports and feedback to the doctor on a regular basis and we provided education to the patients, and had some very nice results after two years," Dr. Sonya Celeste-Harris said of the program, which is currently in its third year.

Because diabetes comes with a long list of potential complications -- including heart disease, kidney dysfunction and blindness -- proper management of the disease is essential.

Patients, especially those who must take insulin to control their blood glucose (sugar), face a long-term battle with fluctuating glucose levels. Poor glucose control over time can cause vascular damage, upping the risk of complications.

To help prevent such complications, Celeste-Harris and colleagues at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston put together a program designed to help doctors and patients better manage diabetes and tried it out at an inner-city, largely African American community practice.

It consists of specially designed computer software for doctors to help them better manage their diabetic patients' care, as well as patient education.

The results of the program's first two years were presented here this week at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

A total of 125 patients with type 2 diabetes participated, 22 percent of whom were insulin-dependent, meaning they required daily injections of the glucose-regulating hormone.

Patients designated by the researchers as having less control over their illness -- due to chronically high blood glucose -- took part in a 10-hour diabetes-education course spread over six weeks, while the rest participated in a two-hour course led in part by their doctor.

After two years, the group as a whole showed better blood sugar control. Among all patients, the average hemoglobin A1C (HA1C) -- a measurement that estimates blood glucose levels for the previous two to three months -- declined from 8.9 percent to 7.9 percent. Ideally, HA1C levels should be about seven percent or lower.

Among those with the poorest glucose control who attended the longer educational course, HA1C measurements decreased from an average of 11.7 percent to nine percent after 12 months.

In addition, far more patients had gotten foot exams aimed at detecting diabetic nerve damage -- increasing from one percent to 88 percent. Kidney function tests increased from 18 percent to 48 percent, and twice-annual blood pressure monitoring rose from 81 percent to 87 percent, according to Celeste-Harris.

Speaking about the how well the program was received, she said, "the patients and the doctor loved it."

"The doctor had never had an opportunity to be up in front of all his patients with diabetes to talk with them about what are things that are important," she noted.

The researchers are hopeful the program will be exportable to other doctors, according to Celeste-Harris.

However, they have yet to conduct a cost analysis.

"We did not have access to cost data, so we don't know how we have done with that," Celeste-Harris said.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".