A Multi-approach Health Education for Individuals with Pre-diabetes

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a convenient and creative diabetes-prevention health education on people with pre-diabetes.

The study was conducted with quasi-experimental design and purposive sampling method. We invited 76 participants from a list of people who received group health examination service at a hospital in Hualien County in 2006 and 2007 to participate in the study. Their fasting blood glucose levels were 100-125mg/dl. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental (n=41) and control (n=35) groups. Each individual in the experimental group was given a specifically designed health education program, including a lecture, a poster, a souvenir, and telephone-reminders every two weeks. The control group individual was only given a diabetes health education pamphlet. The effects were evaluated six weeks after the intervention.

Results showed significant difference in knowledge of diabetes prevention between both groups (p<.01). Experimental group presented significant improvement in exercise and diet prevention behaviors (p<.01). However, the control group did not improve.

In conclusion, we found the effects of multi-approach health education on people with pre-diabetes in improvement of diabetes prevention knowledge and health behaviors