Type 2 diabetes patients educated by other patients perform at least as well as patients trained by professionals.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes education can improve the quality of care of people with diabetes, but many organizations are not equipped to manage its implementation. Involving people with diabetes in the education process can overcome the problem. Thus, we compared clinical, metabolic and psychological outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes 1 year after attending a structured diabetes education programme implemented by professional educators versus the same programme implemented by trained peers with diabetes that also provided ongoing peer support. METHODS: People with type 2 diabetes (25-75 years) were randomly assigned to attend a 4-week structured diabetes education course delivered by professional educators (control) or previously trained peers (peer). Peers also received continuing psychological support, including examples on how to apply diabetes knowledge in daily life via weekly peer cellular phone calls and bimonthly face-to-face interviews in small groups (ten patients), using a structured questionnaire related to the patient's clinical, metabolic and psychological progress. Identical outcome data from both groups were used for follow-up. RESULTS: Both groups had a comparable positive effect on clinical, metabolic and psychological indicators immediately following the programme. Over the following year, peer-educated subjects had lower A(1C) and systolic blood pressure and showed higher adherence to physical activity and better control of hypoglycaemic episodes. CONCLUSION: The non-inferiority of the peer outcomes and the mentioned improvements in this group suggest that volunteer trained peer educators and ongoing support can be successful. This approach provides an effective alternative method of education, especially in areas with limited availability of professionals and economic resources.

[Evaluation of an intensive treatment education program for type 1 diabetes in a group of adolescents. A two year follow up]. / Evaluación de un programa de educación de tratamiento intensivo en adolescentes con diabetes tipo 1. Seguimiento por dos años.

During the past decade several reports were published showing that intensive treatment of type 1 diabetes can prevent and delay disease-related microvascular complications. However, several problems were reported in children and adolescents such as frequent hypoglycemic episodes and weight gain. The aim of this study was to describe the results of intensified treatment for type 1 diabetes in a group of Argentinean adolescents after a follow-up of two years. Twenty five adolescents with type 1 diabetes older than 10 years with at least one year from diagnosis were selected. All patients received a one-week teaching program during admission to our center. All patients were followed-up monthly during two years. Treatment schedule included 4-5 controls in fasting conditions, two doses of NPH insulin and four doses of regular insulin according to glycemia and the amount of calculated carbohydrate intake. Median age was 13.5 years (range 10 to 19 years). Mean time from diagnosis to inclusion in the study was 3.8 years (range 1.25 to 9 years). Mean total dose of NPH insulin decreased significantly when measured at the inclusion in the study (0.9 IU/kg) and after a year of follow-up 0.8 IU/kg (p 0.04). However, there were no changes in NPH insulin dose after two years follow-up (0.85 IU/kg). On the contrary, the dose of regular insulin administered on fasting conditions with normal glycemia increased from 0 to 0.21/kg after a year (p 0.0001) and to 0.69 after two years (non significant). Median HbA1C showed a significant reduction from 10 +/- 1.62% to 8.53 +/- 1.04% after a year (p 0.03) and to 8.72 +/- 0.81% after two years. BMI Z score increased from significantly from 0.7 +/- 0.9 to 1.06 +/- 1.15 after a year (p 0.03) with a further reduction without a significant difference from the basal value after two years. We found no significant differences in the frequency of hypoglycemia or other metabolic features. Our results show that intensive treatment of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents can achieve significant and sustained reductions of HbA1C without increasing the risk of hypoglycemia or other adverse effects.