• Nursing
• Diabetes & Endocrinology Clinical Trials
• Diabetes Mellitus

• Nursing
• Endocrinology
• Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome
• Diabetes & Endocrinology Clinical Trials
• Diabetes Mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) can be challenging for patients to self-manage and can lead to stress that affects their health-related quality of life. The perception of illness is a close determinant of health behavior and outcomes; therefore, researchers in the Netherlands used illness perceptions as the starting point in devising a new support program for patients and their partners in the first years of living with T2DM.

Anne L. van Puffelen, MSc, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, Netherlands, presented a poster on behalf of the Diacourse study group outlining results of a randomized controlled trial (NTR3302) of this support program administered to recently diagnosed patients with T2DM. The program consisted of 3 monthly group-based sessions led by 2 trained nurses that included patients and their partners and 1 booster session after 3 months. Patients who participated in this program were compared with patients who had only a single educational meeting.

The premise behind the intervention was that increasing patients' knowledge, experience, and skills would positively affect their perceptions of illness by increasing their feelings of empowerment. It was thought that this could improve the self-management of symptoms, resulting in enhanced health-related quality of life. Patients' partners were included in the sessions so that their level of knowledge, experience, and skills regarding T2DM treatment issues would affect their perceptions of the patients' illness and the quality of their support.

Patients aged 18 to 85 years were eligible for the study if they had been diagnosed with T2DM within the past 1 to 3 years and had been experiencing some degree of difficulty in meeting the challenge of their diagnosis, as assessed by use of a 3-item screening tool. The primary outcome was the perceived level of diabetes distress on a scale of 0 to 100 and the number of days per week engaged in activities of self-care (exercise, foot care, and diet). An analysis of the results focused on differences between scores at screening and immediately after the third group session. Treatment persistence was determined from results after 6 months of follow-up. No P values were provided, but results claimed to be statistically significant were indicated in bold text (Table 1).

Results demonstrated that the intervention that focused on illness perception issues had significant positive effects on exercise and dietary behaviors as compared with the control group, when measured directly after the intervention. The intervention had similar positive short-term effects on increasing perceptions of T2DM as a serious condition and in activating partners' levels of support. While none of these effects were observed as significant in the 6-month follow-up, significant increases in feelings of empowerment regarding T2DM management as compared with the control group were sustained for 6 months following the intervention sessions.

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