The Women's Wellness After Diabetes Program: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Anderson, Debra J.

Thursday, 25 July 2013: 9:10 AM

Debra J. Anderson, RN, BA, GDNS (ed), MN, PhD¹
Patsy Yates, PhD, MSocSci, BA, DipAppSc, RN, FRCNA²
Amanda M. McGuire, RN, DipAppSc (Nurs), BN, MAppSc (Res)¹
Catherine Lang, PhD³
Thi Thanh Huong Nguyen, RN, MN⁴
(1)School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
(2)School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Qld, Australia
(3)Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia
(4)Queensland Unviersity of Technology, Brisbane, AK, Australia

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to work for women with Diabetes type 2 to help them incorporate positive health behaviours into their lives.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify behavioural strategies to target midlife and older women living with a chronic disease.

Purpose: This study examined the relative efficacy of a novel multimodal, 12 week behavioural intervention (The Women’s Wellness after Diabetes Program: WWADP) which incorporates identifiable lifestyle differences for reducing chronic disease risk factors in midlife and older women with Diabetes type 2.

Methods: : A randomised controlled trial of the WWADP on 109 mid-life Australian women with Diabetes type 2 was conducted. Participants were recruited from four diabetes clinics located in Queensland, Australia. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on socio-demographic characteristics, modifiable lifestyle factors, HRQOL (SF36) and self-efficacy at baseline and at 12 weeks post intervention.

Results: The mean age of the women were 64.20; (SD = 9.24). Most of the women were born in Australia (72.6%), married (61.3%), retired (55.7%), with a low annual household income (59% reported annual household income below $AUD 40,000). The results revealed that the program was effective in increasing overall physical activity (P= 0.01); increasing health related quality of life in the areas of vitality (p=0.02), and emotional and mental health (0.01) and increasing self efficacy with regard to maintaining an exercise and diet program (p=0.04).

Conclusion: This low intensity intervention WWADP, can provide registered nurses with new ways to care for women with Diabetes type 2 to help them incorporate healthy choices and positive health behaviours into their lives. Importantly, the inclusion of the program into standard care will not add to current service burden as it 1) promotes self-management and 2) is designed to be readily integrated into clinical practice and 3) to be relevant across all clinical settings.

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