The Integrated Self-Care Program Effectiveness for Health Behavior and Hemoglobin A1c Levels in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients at Nong Saeng District, Udon Thani Province

Abstract

This quasi–experimental research aimed to determine the effectiveness of an integrated self-care program on health behaviors and hemoglobin A1c levels (HbA1c) in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. The study subjects were type 2 diabetes mellitus patients attending the diabetes clinic at Nong Saeng Hospital, Nong Saeng District, Udon Thani Province. The subjects were divided into two groups: experimental group and control group. Each group consisted of 36 patients. The experimental group received an integrated self-care program for 12 weeks, whereas the control group received routine program of the diabetes clinic in Nong Saeng Hospital. Data including general information, diabetes knowledge, and health behaviors in food consumption, exercise, and emotional management were collected by using questionnaires. Blood collection was taken for HbA1c determination. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and comparing means of HbA1c levels between the experimental group and the control group before and after the experiment using Student’s t-test.

The results founded that the experimental group had the knowledge level and the average scores of health behaviors in food consumption increasingly significant differences (p <0.05). When comparing between the experimental group and the control group, the knowledge scores, the health behaviors scores and the means of HbA1c levels were not statistically significant differences. However, the average HbA1c levels of the experimental group increased less than the control group. Therefore, an integrated self-care program helps to improve the knowledge and health behaviors of type 2 diabetic patients. The findings of this study suggest that an integrated self-care program should be continued and monitored in the long term.