Effect of Health Education Program using Appling Self-efficacy Theory and Social Support for Type 2 Diabetic Patients at Nhongkungpueak Health Promoting Hospital, Nhongkungsri District, Kalasin Province

Abstract

Background and objective : Diabetes is chronic disease that is a major health problem worldwide and is required lifelong treatment. This quasi-expermental research aimed to study the  effects of the application of  a health education program that applied not only the self-efficacy theory but also social support so as to help the type 2 diabetic patients at the Nhongkungpueak Health Promoting Hospital, Nhongkungsri district, Kalasin province, to cope with this disease.    

Methods : .  A sample of 60 patients were recruited, of which 30 were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the other 30 patients to the comparison group.  The experimental group members  were the beneficiaries of a health education program that consisted of discussions  regarding diabetes control that included both lectures and modeling. They were also taught to exercise to control diabetes.  In addition to all this they also received a handbook that described how diabetes patients can cope with the disease.  The experimental group also received regularly scheduled visits from public health officers at their homes.   This health education program had a duration of 12 weeks. The comparison group members received only individual health education from the Health Promoting Hospital of the Nongkrungsri district.  Data were collected by questionnaires.  A checklist for both the physical exams and patient dairy notes was also used to collect data. Descriptive data were analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Comparative analysis were conducted by using both the paired sample t-test and independent t-test at the 0.05 level of significance.

Results : After the implementation of the health education program, the experimental group had significantly higher mean scores  in regards to both knowledge and self-efficacy than they did before the intervention      (p< 0.05). The experimental group also had higher mean scores in regards to the outcome of expectancies and the results and intention of positive  behavior for control of blood sugar than they did before the intervention as well (p< 0.001). They also had higher scores than the comparison group regarding this as well (p< 0.001). The difference in Fasting blood sugar (FBS ) between the intervention and control groups was statistically significant (p< 0.001), but Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was not statistically significant.

Conclusion : This study  demonstrated that this health education program  increased not only the levels of knowledge and self-efficacy but it also increased the  expectations for the results that would be achieved as a result of the use of  positive behavior  to control blood sugar. However, the aforementioned health program did not affect the blood glucose levels because of the short duration of this study.

Key word : Self-efficacy theory,  social support, Type 2 Diabetic patients