The impact of Multimedia Software Support on the Knowledge and Self-Care Behaviors of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: a Randomized Clinical Trial

INTRODUCTION Education is the most effective and economical part of diabetes treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a training program with multimedia software on the knowledge and self-care behaviors of patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial in which 60 patients referred to diabetes clinic at Arak city were divided randomly into experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The instruments for collecting data were "Summary of Diabetes self-care activities questionnaire" and "knowledge of self-care in patients with diabetes". Data were collected before and 2 months after the intervention in the both groups. Educational program with equal content was applied for both experimental group (self-care program with multimedia software support) & control group (lecture and presentation with PowerPoint). Data analysis was done using SPSS Ver.13. RESULTS Implementation of the self-care program with multimedia software support resulted in improvements in patients' self-care behaviors in the experimental group, whereas these behaviors had not significant changes in the control group after eight weeks. There was a significant difference in the mean score of knowledge in both the experiment and control groups before and after the intervention. CONCLUSION Considering beneficial effects of training program with multimedia software support on the knowledge and self-care behaviors and the importance of this issue, suggested that the patients preferably provide terms of use of educational software for themselves.