A survey of patients acceptability of diabetes education programmes in Italy

When planning diabetes education programmes it would be useful to know in advance the patients' demands and expectations. To this purpose, a questionnaire was circulated throughout Italy. Eight hundred and forty-five forms were returned from 487 men and 358 women of age 49 +/- 18 (SD) residing in all regions of Italy. Fifty percent were on insulin, 37% on oral agents and 13% on diet only. Forty-seven percent believed they had a satisfactory knowledge of diabetes, 49% thought it fair or poor and 4% judged it non-existent. Such knowledge derived from diabetic clinics, mass media, specialized publications and family doctors. Only 11% had previously attended education programmes. The vast majority (83%) believed that better information would help to improve their diabetes care and were willing to attend education courses. Printed material and group learning were preferred to audiovisual aids and individual education. Doctors were preferred as teachers (83%) to other patients or paramedical staff. Patients were mostly interested in learning about complications (84%), diet (74%), control (63%), intercurrent illnesses (61%) and inheritance (59%). The least requested subjects were CSII (20%), the artificial pancreas (22%), insulin preparations (22%), pancreatic transplant (26%) and oral agents (31%).