The Effect of Participatory Care Program on Self-Care Behaviors and Disease Awareness in Diabetic Patients

Background: Inadequate self-care and knowledge about diabetes are  important causes of chronic complications among diabetic patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a participatory care program on self-care and disease awareness in these patients.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 90 diabetic patients referred to Parsian Diabetes Clinic in Mashhad, Iran, 2015. The patients were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to intervention and control (n=45 for each group) groups. The participatory care program entailing four stages of motivation, preparation, involvement, and evaluation was performed for the intervention group through seven 60-90 minute sessions. Data was collected using Diabetes Knowledge scale and Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) questionnaire, which were completed based on interviews with patients before and three months after the intervention. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, Fisher’s exact test, Chi-square, independent and paired t-tests, as well as Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used in SPSS, version 20.

Results: After performing the participatory care program on the intervention group, the mean scores of disease awareness and self-care significantly increased from 48.0±12.7 to 91.5±7.6 and from 23.5±15.7 to 52.3±13.2, respectively (P<0.001). Moreover, there was a significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of these variables (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Given the effect of participatory care program on the improvement of knowledge and self-care in patients with diabetes or other chronic diseases, it is recommended to perform this procedure as a customized method based on Iranian culture.