Education and health professionals training programs for people with type 2 diabetes: a review of quality criteria.

OBJECTIVE To contribute to the development of a set of quality criteria for patient education and health professionals training that could be applied in European countries. METHODS Literature review quality criteria, pre-selection based on a comparison of the criteria, peer group and expert based selection of the criteria. RESULTS 14 quality criteria were selected: goals, rationale, target group, setting, scheduling of the education/training sessions, environmental requirements, qualification of the trainers/educators, core components of the educator/trainer's role, curriculum, education methods, education didactics, monitoring of the effectiveness and quality of the program, implementation level and source of funding. DISCUSSION A set of preliminary quality criteria for patient education and health professionals training was developed, which could be applied in European countries.