Effects of self-management education on diabetic control among patients with type 2 diabetes : a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To systematically review the effect of self-management education on diabetic control in type 2 diabetes

Research design and methods: PubMed was searched for English-language articles published between 2010 and 2013. All the studies were original articles selected manually and used randomized control trials generating results of self-management education in people with type 2 diabetes referring to diabetic control. Relevant data were divided and tabulated into factors of population characteristics, interventions and outcomes. Interventions were classified into three sections as collaborative information intervention, lifestyle intervention, and skills teaching intervention based on the patterns of education. Outcomes were categorized into glycemic control, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and nephropathy risk factors.

Results: A total of 24 studies were identified of initial 41 articles for this review. Effects of self-management education on glycemic control were demonstrated to be positive both in short-term (<10 months) and long-term (>10 months) follow-up, but more positive effects in short-term follow-up. The same effectiveness happens to CVD risk factors, including lipids, weight and blood pressure. On the other hand, with short-term follow-up, teaching skills intervention of self-management education is more effective than collaborative information intervention and lifestyle intervention on reducing glycemic control and CVD risk factors. Also with long-term follow-up, teaching skills intervention of self-management education had more effectiveness than collaborative information intervention and lifestyle intervention on reducing glycemic control. However, few studies including CVD risk factors in the long-term follow-up, so it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of on CVD risk factors with long-term follow-up.

Conclusions: Evidences supports the positive effectiveness of self-management education with collaborative information intervention, lifestyle intervention and skills teaching intervention among type 2 diabetes patients on diabetic control, in both short-term follow-up and long-term follow-up, but short-term follow-up is more effective than long-term follow-up. Further research is needed to develop self-management interventions to maintain long-term follow-up effects on glycemic control, CVD risk factors and other diabetes complications.