The Effect of Virtual Self-Care Education on the Perception of Type 1 Diabetes-Related Stigma in Female Adolescents with Diabetes: A Clinical Trial

Given the importance of diabetes-related stigma and its coincidence with adolescence and the need to implement a self-care program to strengthen knowledge, improve attitudes and practice in adolescents, the present study aimed to determine the effect of virtual self-care education on the perception of type 1 diabetes-related stigma in female adolescents with diabetes.

The present quasi-experimental clinical trial was done on 76 girls with type 1 diabetes as members of the Iranian Diabetes Society (IDS) in 2016. We recruited patients using the convenience sampling, and then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. We implemented the self-care education in the experimental group through a mobile-based virtual social network for 12 weeks (a media message per day and interactively). The 35-item online questionnaire of type 1 diabetes-related stigma were fulfilled before intervention, immediately after the intervention and 4 weeks after the intervention. Data were analyzed using the independent t-test, Fisher's exact test, and Chi-square test in SPSS-16.

There was no significant difference between the experimental (94.09±21.89) and control groups (89.87±22.97) in terms of mean scores of stigmas before the intervention (P=0.415). Mean scores of stigmas decreased significantly in the experimental group immediately (78.20±18.66; P=0.043) and 4 weeks after the intervention (77.47±19.39; P=0.012) compared to control group.

Self-care education via virtual social networks was effective in reducing the stigma perception. In general, the more education was separated from its traditional method, lecturing, and was accompanied by attractive and popular methods, such as the use of social networks, the higher the level of learning, and the more enjoyable it became.