Promoting Self-Care in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Tele-Education

Tele-education is an effective strategy due to elimination of time and space limitation and establishment of an effective relationship with client. This study was carried out to determine the impact of a tele-education strategy via telephone and short message service on promoting self-care in patients with type 2 diabetes. This experimental study was carried out on patients with type 2 diabetes registered to the Urmia Diabetes Association. Sixty six patients were selected and randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups. Data were gathered using the Summary of Diabetes Self- Care Activities questionnaire. The education and telephone follow ups had given to the intervention group during 12 weeks. Data were analyzed using the Chi-squared test، paired t-test and independent t-test. Findings of the study showed that self-care activity was increased in the intervention group after the education and telephone follow ups. After the intervention، the mean score of the self-care activities were 53. 33 ± 16. 97 and 103. 67 ± 7. 46 in the control and intervention groups، respectively (P<0. 001). There were significant differences in the mean scores of the self-care behaviors in the areas of adherence to diet، physical activity، blood sugar self-monitoring، adherence to medication regimens، foot care and overall self-care in the intervention and the control groups (P<0. 001). Telephone follows ups and tele - education by nurses had important effects on promoting self-care activities among patients with type 2 diabetes.