Impact of a Nursing Educational Intervention based on Social Support to Improve Self-management in Adults with Diabetes. Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objective. The study sought to determine the effectiveness of a nursing educational intervention based on social support to improve type-2 diabetes self-management in adults. Methods. Clinical trial conducted in Barranquilla (Colombia), with participation by 94 adults with type-2 diabetes attending an outpatient consultation of a Primary Health Care Institution, who were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive conventional care (control group, n = 47) and educational intervention (intervention group, n = 47). The social support educational intervention was based on Ryan & Sawin’s middle-range “Individual and Family Self-Management” nursing theory, whose validity was established through expert validation. The intervention consisted in carrying out four individual educational sessions lasting 40 minutes on days 0, 15, 30, and 45 days after the start of the study, based on the use of printed educational booklets. Nursing Outcomes Classification(NOC) self-management labels were used: diabetes (1619) and Social support (1504) to evaluate the primary results at three times: baseline, at the end of the intervention, and one month after the intervention ended. Results.A positive and significant effect (p < 0.001) of the social support intervention on type-2 diabetes self-management was found and on the perception of social support (p< 0.001), exclusively in the intervention group, highlighting in this group that the average scores in both NOC labels remained without deterioration for up to a month after the intervention ended. Conclusion.The social-support-based nursing educational intervention proved effective to improve type-2 diabetes self-management in adults. Its implementation is recommended in nursing practice within primary care programs in contexts similar to this study.