Impact of health education on knowledge, attitude, practices and glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Effective health education consequently improves knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) leading to better glycemic control and is widely accepted as an integral part of comprehensive diabetes care for affected individuals and their families in primary care settings. Aims: To assess the impact of health education on knowledge, attitude, practices, and glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Settings and Design: This case control study was conducted in the department of Medicine of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods: The study was conducted on 100 diabetic subjects aged more than 40 years comprising of 50 cases and 50 controls. Cases were given education on their disease, drugs, dietary, and lifestyle modifications along with patient education leaflet at baseline and at first follow-up, while controls received neither of these. Subjects were assessed for KAP by administering KAP questionnaire and for glycemic control by measuring glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) at baseline and at the end of the study. Results: In this study, end mean knowledge, attitude, practice, and KAP SUM scores of cases (10.28 +/- 1.78, 3.46 +/- 0.93, 3.14 +/- 0.86, and 16.82 +/- 3.40, respectively) showed significant increase from the baseline (3.86 +/- 0.93, 1.00 +/- 0.83, 0.40 +/- 0.64, and 5.26 +/- 2.10, respectively) compared to controls, accompanied by significant reduction in HbA1C of cases at the end of the study compared to the controls. Conclusions: Effective health education improves knowledge, attitude, and practices, particularly with regard to lifestyle modifications and dietary management, culminating into better glycemic control that can slow down the progression of diabetes and prevent downstream complications.