Digitising diabetes education for a safer Ramadan: Design, delivery, and evaluation of massive open online courses in Ramadan-focused diabetes education

Scott C Mackenzie; Jane Dickson; Salma Mehar; Barakatun Nisak Mohd Yusof; Adhari Alselmi; Bilal Aksi; Mats Stage Baxter; Alex Bickerton; Harnovdeep Singh Bharaj; Nicholas Conway; Kirsten M Cumming; Lee-Ling Lim; Nader Lessan; Nazim Ghouri; Tracey T Flax; Hibbah A Osei-Kwasi; Michelle Es Teo; Salman Waqar; Mohamed Hassanein; Deborah J Wake

doi:10.1016/j.pcd.2024.03.002

Digitising diabetes education for a safer Ramadan: Design, delivery, and evaluation of massive open online courses in Ramadan-focused diabetes education

Prim Care Diabetes. 2024 Mar 15:S1751-9918(24)00065-2. doi: 10.1016/j.pcd.2024.03.002. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Scott C Mackenzie¹, Jane Dickson², Salma Mehar³, Barakatun Nisak Mohd Yusof⁴, Adhari Alselmi⁵, Bilal Aksi⁶, Mats Stage Baxter⁷, Alex Bickerton⁸, Harnovdeep Singh Bharaj⁹, Nicholas Conway², Kirsten M Cumming¹⁰, Lee-Ling Lim¹¹, Nader Lessan¹², Nazim Ghouri¹³, Tracey T Flax¹⁰, Hibbah A Osei-Kwasi¹⁴, Michelle Es Teo¹⁵, Salman Waqar¹⁶, Mohamed Hassanein¹⁷, Deborah J Wake¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ MyWay Digital Health, Dundee, UK; Division of Population Health and Genomics, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
² Division of Population Health and Genomics, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
³ Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism, Imperial College London, UK.
⁴ Universiti Putra Malaysia, Department of Dietetics Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁵ Clinical Sciences Department, Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Medical Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Patient advocate, Glasgow, UK.
⁷ Centre for Medical Informatics, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
⁸ Department of Diabetes & Endocrinology, Yeovil District Hospital, Somerset Foundation Trust, Yeovil, UK.
⁹ NHS Bolton Foundation Trust, Bolton, UK.
¹⁰ MyWay Digital Health, Dundee, UK.
¹¹ Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹² Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
¹³ School of Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK; Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK.
¹⁴ School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
¹⁵ Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
¹⁶ Department of Primary Care & Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; British Islamic Medical Association, UK.
¹⁷ Dubai Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
¹⁸ MyWay Digital Health, Dundee, UK; Centre for Medical Informatics, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: d.wake@ed.ac.uk.

PMID: 38493066
DOI: 10.1016/j.pcd.2024.03.002

Abstract

Aims: Ramadan-focused diabetes education is critical to facilitate safer Ramadan fasting amongst Muslim people living with diabetes. We present the design, delivery, and evaluation of two parallel massive open online courses (MOOCs) in Ramadan-focused diabetes education for people with diabetes and HCPs.

Methods: Two Ramadan-focused diabetes education MOOCs were developed and delivered for Ramadan 2023: one for HCPs in English, and another for people with diabetes in English, Arabic and Malay. A user-centred iterative design process was adopted, informed by user feedback from a 2022 pilot MOOC. Evaluation comprised a mixed-methods evaluation of pre- and post-course user surveys.

Results: The platform was utilised by people with diabetes and their family, friends and healthcare professionals. Overall, a total of 1531 users registered for the platform from 50 countries, 809 started a course with a 48% subsequent completion rate among course starters. Qualitative analysis showed users found the course a user-friendly and authoritative information source. In the HCP MOOC, users reported improved post-MOOC Ramadan awareness, associated diabetes knowledge and ability to assess and advise patients in relation to their diabetes during Ramadan (p<0.01).

Conclusions: We demonstrate the potential of MOOCs to deliver culturally tailored, high-quality, scalable, multilingual Ramadan-focused diabetes education to HCPs and people with diabetes.

Keywords: Diabetes; Fasting; Massive open online course; Ramadan; Self-management education.