Impact of distance education via mobile phone text messaging on knowledge, attitude, practice and self efficacy of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Iran

Objective: To evaluate the impacts of using SMS on improving laboratory test levels and Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (KAP) and Self Efficacy (SE) of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in Iran. Materials and methods: In this randomized controlled trial study, a total of 81 type 2 diabetes patients were randomly assigned into two groups exp. group (n = 43) and cont. group (n = 38). Only exp. group received 4 messages weekly consisted of diet, exercise, medication taking and. The researchers provided the intervention for 12 weeks. Data were collected with results of laboratory tests and KAP, SE reliable and valid questionnaires and demographic characteristics list. Data gathering at the baseline of the study and after 3 months intervention and was analyzed by SPSS11.5 software using descriptive and inferential statistics methods. Results: The results of this study showed that exp. group compared with cont. group improved significantly in HbA 1C (p = 0.024), LDL (p = 0.019), cholesterol (p = 0.002), BUN (p ≤ 0.001), micro albumin (p ≤ 0.001), knowledge (p ≤ 0.001), practice (p ≤ 0.001) and self efficacy (p ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: The finding of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of intervention using SMS via mobile phone in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Thus, further studies are recommended for wide usage of distance education with mobile phone utilization. © 2012 Goodarzi et al.