Effects of telephone home visits on health literacy, oral-health risk behaviours and fasting blood glucose among patients with impaired fasting glucose, Maesuk subdistrict, Maechai district , Phayao province

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the effects of telephone-home visiting program in improving health literacy, reducing oral health risk behaviours and reducing fasting blood sugar (FBS) among patients with impaired fasting glucose (IFG). A non-equivalent control group pretest–posttest study was conducted over six months. Both groups received baseline counseling based on health literacy principles; however, the intervention group received additional follow-up through telephone home visits delivered by village health volunteers (VHV) using motivational interviewing techniques. Results indicated that the proportion of participants with adequate health literacy levels increased from 33.0% to 100.0% (p < 0.001). Their mean oral health risk behavior scores decreased from 3.8 to 1.0 (p < 0.001), and mean FBS decreased from 113.7 to 96.9 mg/dL (p < 0.001). Notably, eight phone visits for four months were sufficient to establish sustained self-care capacity. In contrast, the comparison group’s mean post-intervention FBS (105.5 mg/dL) remained significantly higher than that of the intervention group FBS (96.9 mg/dL, p < 0.001). These findings suggested that continuous telephone follow-up is more effective than counseling only. This approach could be integrated into routine practice to reduce FBS in this sample.