Effects of a self-care behavior development program for Diabetes Mellitus patients at Kut Chum district, Yasothon province

Abstract

The objectives of this quasi-experimental research were to compare self-care behavior, blood sugar and blood pressure of an experimental group before and after experiment, and after experiment between the experimental group and the comparison group. The sample comprised  Diabetes Mellitus patients who could not control blood sugar, attended at the chronic disease clinic in Non Mi and Phon Ngam subdistrict health promoting hospital, Kut Chum District, Yasothon Province. They were selected by the purposive sampling technique as inclusion criteria to be experimental group and comparison group respectively, 35 persons in each group, with similar in sex, age, and time of illness. The experimental tool was the Self-care Behavior Development Program based on Orem’s self-care theory. The collecting data tools were: 1) questionnaires with 2 parts: (1) general data, (2) self-care behavior (CVI 0.96 and reliability 0.92), 2) glucometer and digital sphygmomanometer, and 3) a health data record form. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed rank test, and Mann-Whitney U test. The results found as follows.  (1) After experiment, overall self-care behaviors of the experimental group was significantly higher than that before experiment (p < .05). These behaviors were significantly higher than that of the comparison group (p <.05). Every aspects of self-care behaviors of the experimental group were significantly higher than before experiment and higher than the comparison group, however, medical self-care behavior of the experimental group did not significantly and differently increase from the comparison group (p <.05). (2) After experiment, blood sugar from finger tip and HbA1C of the experimental group were significantly lower than  before experiment and lower than  the comparison group (p <.05). Systolic blood pressure of the experimental group was significantly lower than  before experiment, but it was not significantly different from the comparison group.  Diastolic blood pressure of the experimental group was significantly higher than  before experiment, but it was not significantly different from the comparison group (p < .05).