Group Education Strategies for Diabetes Self - Management

Diabetes self-management education (DSME) is recognized as a fundamental component of diabetes care.1 The goal of DSME is to help patients acquire the knowledge, information, self-care practices, coping skills, and attitudes required for the effective selfmanagement of their diabetes. Several reviews and meta-analyses have found DSME interventions to have a positive impact on diabetes-related health and psychosocial outcomes, specifically increasing diabetes-related knowledge and improving blood glucose monitoring, dietary and exercise habits, foot care, medication taking, coping, and glycemic control.2–6 Although group-based approaches have been associated with several advantages (e.g., cost-effectiveness, patient satisfaction, and interactive learning), to date, the literature has only begun to investigate and describe different approaches to group-based DSME. Although the evidence supports the efficacy of DSME programs as a whole, variability in program goals, outcome measures, length of intervention, frequency of sessions, learning format, and demographic background of participants has meant that there is no known prototype for the optimal DSME program.10 The three objectives of this article are to: 1. Briefly summarize the literature about group-based diabetes patient education programs, 2. Describe how a theoretically based approach (i.e., empowerment) has been used to develop three different group education programs, 3. Illustrate how the consistent application of the core tenets of this approach have led to the development of DSME programs that are effective and differ substantially from traditional lecture-based group education programs.