CareMessage Program as an Additional Intervention in the Care of Uninsured Type 2 Diabetic Patients
Mentor Information
Eduardo Gonzalez (Department of Family Medicine)
Description
Successful management of type 2 diabetes is largely contingent upon patient adherence to medication regimens, healthy diets, and exercise habits. This study follows the outcomes of the CareMessage program: a messaging program used to engage diabetic patients by asking about their beliefs regarding diabetes management. Through the CareMessage program, patients were also provided with diabetes education, reminders of their health, and lifestyle resources such as healthy recipes, useful websites, and modified workouts. The goal of this project was to determine whether implementation of the CareMessage program as part of standard care at the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic would improve patients’ self-efficacy in managing their condition and overall health. All active diabetic patients were offered the opportunity to enroll in the program, yielding a total of 22 participants. The primary outcome of self-efficacy in this study was measured using the Diabetes Empowerment Scale—Short Form (DES-SF). Secondary outcomes of the study included BMI and HbA1c changes. At the 6-months benchmark, data revealed a positive trend in DES-SF scores (averages from 31.1 to 32.1), a decreasing trend in BMI (averages from 31.7 to 31.5), and an increasing trend in HbA1c (averages from 8.01 to 8.15), however all these changes were not statistically significant. Data analysis for the 12-months benchmark remains in progress for a more definite conclusion.
CareMessage Program as an Additional Intervention in the Care of Uninsured Type 2 Diabetic Patients
Successful management of type 2 diabetes is largely contingent upon patient adherence to medication regimens, healthy diets, and exercise habits. This study follows the outcomes of the CareMessage program: a messaging program used to engage diabetic patients by asking about their beliefs regarding diabetes management. Through the CareMessage program, patients were also provided with diabetes education, reminders of their health, and lifestyle resources such as healthy recipes, useful websites, and modified workouts. The goal of this project was to determine whether implementation of the CareMessage program as part of standard care at the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic would improve patients’ self-efficacy in managing their condition and overall health. All active diabetic patients were offered the opportunity to enroll in the program, yielding a total of 22 participants. The primary outcome of self-efficacy in this study was measured using the Diabetes Empowerment Scale—Short Form (DES-SF). Secondary outcomes of the study included BMI and HbA1c changes. At the 6-months benchmark, data revealed a positive trend in DES-SF scores (averages from 31.1 to 32.1), a decreasing trend in BMI (averages from 31.7 to 31.5), and an increasing trend in HbA1c (averages from 8.01 to 8.15), however all these changes were not statistically significant. Data analysis for the 12-months benchmark remains in progress for a more definite conclusion.
