Diabetes education session for young IDDM probands and their family members in a developing country: an evaluation

The aim of the study was to investigate whether a diabetes education programme developed and provided at our centre was successful in creating an awareness and imparting knowledge on various aspects of diabetes mellitus. A sample of patients was drawn from the outpatient department of the Diabetes Research Centre and the M V Hospital for Diabetes, Madras, Southern India (n=37). They answered a questionnaire consisting of seven areas of information about diabetes mellitus and its management. The data were collected on three occasions, namely, immediately after exposure to the diabetes education programme, three months later and six months later.

The subjects showed significant improvement in the awareness of different aspects related to diabetes mellitus during the follow‐up periods. The mean differences were significant (p < 0.01). It was concluded that the intake of educative material was high, the information was retained and consolidated. The knowledge of diabetes mellitus improved over the time. Participative learning with audio‐visual aids proved beneficial.