The Effectiveness of Diabetes Education for Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetic Persons.

Individuals with noninsulin depend ent diabetes mellitus referred to a dia betes education programme were al located at random to treatment (n = 32) or non-treatment (n = 28) groups to assess the effectiveness of this pro gramme. The education course lasted four weeks, at the end of which the participants showed reductions of HbA1c and post-prandial glucose levels, improvement in knowledge and less anxiety. On the other hand, the control group experienced more anxiety and did not show significant changes in measured indices of glu cose control. Nevertheless, these im provements in glucose control were not sustained. Within four weeks of cessation of the intervention pro gramme, HbA1c and glucose levels were not significantly different from those measured at entry to the pro gramme. In addition, a delay of four weeks from the time of referral until initiation of education was associated with lack of significant reduction of HbA1c and glucose levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]