The Effect of Continuous Care Model on Diabetic Patients’ Blood Pressure

Introduction: Hypertension can accelerate other complications of diabetes mellitus, particularly cardiovas-cular disease and nephropathy. This study was carried out in order to determine the effect of applying Continuous Care Model on diabetic patients’ blood pressure. Methods: This clinical trial was performed as time series on 74 patients with diabetes mellitus type II, in Orumieh in the years 2003-2004. After matching the study variables, the patients were divided equally and with random allocation to two experiment and control groups. The Continuous Care Model which included 4 main steps of orientation, sensitization, performing and evaluation was performed for the experiment group through 10 sessions of education concerning self care in diabetes, each session lasting for 2 hours. The blood pressure of both groups was measured at the beginning and every month, for three times. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using repeated measure ANOVA. Results: There wasn’t any difference between the mean of systolic blood pressure in both study groups, but comparing the mean of diastolic blood pressure of the two groups showed a significant difference. Conclusion: Applying Continuous Care Model can reduce diastolic blood pressure in type 2 diabetic patients. Therefore, it is recommended to use this model on diabetic patients in order to control diabetes complications.