The Effect of Self-care Educational/Training Interventions on the Outcomes of Gestational Diabetes: A Review Article

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of self-care educational/training interventions on gestational diabetes.

In this review, we searched the ERIC, Clinical Key, Cochrane, Scopus, PubMed, and ISI databases as well as Iranian databases from 1990 until Jan 2017. Having evaluated 3267 articles by three of the authors, 20 clinical trials with educational/training approach remained for analysis. In this study, CONSORT checklist, JADAD scale and Cochrane handbook were used to evaluate the validity of articles.

The quality of 34% of articles was found to be poor due to probability of bias in designing the interventions and the effect of absence of blinding of personnel and participants. However, absence of blinding had a low impact on the results of most studies carried out on objective scales like blood glucose levels, or maternal and neonatal results. Moreover, 66% of studies were assessed to be at a good level of quality.

There are few articles with educational/training approach on self-care in gestational diabetes mellitus, but based on the homogeneity of participants and significant results of self-care interventions, especially lifestyle ones, self-care guidelines can be developed for gestational diabetes mellitus.