Effects of Health Education Programs based on Protection Motivation Theory and Social Support on Behaviors to Prevent Complications from Kidney Disease among Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research aimed to examine the effects of health education programs based on Protection Motivation Theory and social support on behaviors to prevent complications from kidney disease among type 2 diabetic patients. Samples consisted of 60 diabetic patients who were equally assigned into an experimental group and a comparison group. The research instruments composed of the health education programs based on Protection Motivation Theory and social support, a test with the reliability of .74, with the difficulty and the discrimination within the range of .29-.79 and .60-.96, respectively, the questionnaires with the reliability within the range of .72-.76, and the laboratory analyzer equipments. The implementation and data collection were conducted from June to September, 2015. Statistics used for data analysis included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, paired t-test, and independent t-test.

Results revealed that 1) after the experiment, the experimental group had statistically significant higher mean scores of knowledge about diabetes to prevent kidney complications, perceived severity of kidney complications, perceived susceptibility of kidney complications, self-efficacy expectation in self-care behavior, expectation in response efficacy on self-care behavior, kidney complications prevention practices, and social support than before the experiment and higher than those in the comparison group; 2) after the experiment, the experimental group had statistically significant higher mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) than before the experiment and higher than that in the comparison group and 3) after the experiment, the experimental group had statistically significant lower mean fasting blood sugar (FBS) and microalbuminuria (MAU) than before the experiment and lower than those in the comparison group.

This study suggested that the health education programs in this study should be continuously applied for modifying behaviors to prevent kidney complications among type 2 diabetic patients in varies settings.