Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
351
Learning and Memory Related to Self-Care Practices in a Mexican Diabetic Population
Lidia G. Compean, PhD, Nursing Graduate School, Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Tampico, Mexico and Esther C. Gallegos, PhD, Nursing Graduate School, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico.
| Learning Objective #1: know about the importance of learning/memory inside Orem`s Self-care theory, and their relationship with self-care practices in a Mexican diabetic community. |
| Learning Objective #2: reflect about the importance of using concepts from other sciences to explain the research phenomena, and contribute to enrich the nursing knowledge. |
Purpose: To describe the relationship between learning/memory and self-care practices in middle age adults with type 2 diabetes, and the effect of previous education in diabetes. Methodology: Orem´s framework was used in a correlational study in diabetic people between 30 to 55 years who attend a Clinic of Social Security in Guadalupe Nuevo Leon Mexico. It was used a randomized sampling, sample size with a confidence interval of 95%, and a power of 82%. Some of exclusion criteria were: < 3 years of diabetes diagnosis, < 24 points in the MMSE, neurological and psychiatric disorders, severe depression, no controlled high blood pressure (>160/100), and any problem of senses. Statistically, it was necessary 98 participants, but because of exclusion criteria it was calculated an additional percentage of people. Of a total of 2,366 patients, we randomly selected 290 who were contacted by phone or home visiting in order to detect potential participants. These were interviewed in the Clinic and them who had the research profile (105) were formally invited through informant consent. For data collection there were used the WMS-III, Self-care Activities Questionnaire, Diabetes Care Profile Questionnaire, and the pedometer New Life Style-2000. For data analysis it was calculated a Spearman correlation and multiple regressions analysis. Results: Immediate verbal learning/memory and delayed verbal learning/memory were positively related with self-care practices in medication (rs = .239, p =.017) and physical activity (rs = .196, p = .04) respectively. It was also supported the relationship between almost all dimensions of learning/memory and self-care practices in diet, monitoring and medication, moderated by previous education in diabetes. Conclusion: Inside Orem`s theory, findings of this research lead suggest that learning/memory are neuropsychological concepts that may be considered cognitive power components needed to improve self-care practices moderated by the estimative ability of previous education in diabetes.