Evaluation of a Diabetes Education Call Center intervention

Telemed J E Health. 2006 Aug;12(4):457-65. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2006.12.457.

Abstract

Patients require education and information as they engage in self-help, self-care, and disease management activities. The purpose of this study was to determine how effective voice technologies are in diabetes patient education. A pretest-posttest study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of prerecorded educational messages delivered via the telephone to participants with diabetes. The intervention consisted of 24 four-minute messages on the topics of knowledge and prevention, glucose level, diet and activity, and management and coping. Eighteen persons with diabetes participated in the pretest-posttest trial. A total of 324 educational messages were listened to over a 12-week intervention period. The pretest-posttest trial demonstrated that a brief telephone-based diabetes education intervention can have a significant impact on increasing frequency of checking blood for glucose (p = 0.017), improving general diabetes knowledge (p = 0.048), and improving insulin-specific knowledge (p = 0.020). Automated educational interventions should be based on scientifically sound evidence and can be effectively delivered by telephone. Automated telephone-based diabetes education may be used alone or as a supplement to existing diabetes education. Automated education is a viable solution when healthcare organizations and regions that as a result of a lack of human and financial resources cannot afford a diabetes educator.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring
  • Body Weight
  • Diabetes Mellitus / therapy*
  • Female
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Patient Education as Topic / methods*
  • Telecommunications*
  • Telephone