Effect of Home Care Program on Therapeutic Adherence of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Aims: One of the challenges for diabetics is following a treatment regimen. Educating the patient at home increases the ability to take care of themselves. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of home care program on the therapeutic adherence of patients with type 2 diabetes. Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 80 patients with type 2 diabetes referred to the Diabetes Research Center of Hamadan in 2019 who were selected by convenience sampling method. Samples were divided into intervention and control groups using permuted block method (40 people in each group). Educational intervention was performed in home care during two face-to-face sessions and two telephones follow-up. Before and two months after intervention, the questionnaire was completed by both groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software and Fisherchr('39')s exact test, Chi-square, paired t-tests and one-way analysis of covariance were used. Findings: The mean score of therapeutic adherence was higher in control group than in intervention group, before home care (p<0.001); while after intervention, the mean score of therapeutic adherence significantly increased in intervention group compared to the control group (p<0.001). Conclusion: Implementation of home care program in patients with type 2 diabetes improves the therapeutic adherence of these patients.