Enhancing self-care management in diabetic patients: a randomized controlled trial exploring the interplay of social...

Despite the significant global and Egyptian prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), with the recognized importance of self-care and social support in enhancing glycemic control, there is a scarcity of studies on this topic within Egypt's especially interventional studies and role of enhancement program on diabetic self-management practice. Our objective is to evaluate the effect of a health education program on the enhancement of self-care management compared to the usual care and explore factors affecting self-care management as social support, self-efficacy, and empowerment among patients with T2DM.

A randomized control trial was conducted on 330 (165:165) T2DM patients confirmed more than one year and had regular visits to the diabetic patient clinic in our hospital. The study outcomes include diabetes knowledge, self-management practice, social support, self-efficacy, and empowerment along with body mass index (BMI), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and fasting blood glucose (FBG).

The intervention group had significant improvements in knowledge and self-practice with post-intervention adequate values (80.0% and 87.8%) compared to the control (40% and 55.1%) respectively (p-value < 0.001). Furthermore, a significant increase in patients with controlled FBG and HbA1c occurred in both groups (p-value < 0.001) with a significantly higher increase in the intervention group (p-value < 0.001). In total, 60.9%, 58.8%, and 25.7% of the patients had satisfactory social support, self-efficacy, and empowerment, respectively.

The results indicated that a diabetes self-care management education program was proven to be effective in improving patients' self-care management. Social support, self-efficacy, and empowerment could have positive roles.