Benefits of intensive treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes patients: the importance of patient education

Evaluation of the quality and contents of diabetes mellitus patient education on Internet

Patient education is widely regarded as an essential component of chronic disease care and effective health promotion. Internet is extremely useful medium in this respect. Web-based information is seldom the subject of systematic investigation for its accuracy and appropriateness for patients. Objective of this study was to evaluate of web-based diabetes patient education material for well-accepted evaluation criteria and core education concepts. Out of 214 web-sites retrieved from meta search engine, 53 sites themselves provide patient information and so considered for evaluation. Data obtained was analyzed by cluster analysis and classified into four categories with respect to quality. Considerable variability in quality of diabetes patient education web-sites was found with respect to core educational concepts and HSWG criteria. Inclusion of evidence-based medicine concepts, role of family support, enhancement in customized content and easier feedback mechanism in the web-sites can be a significant development in the direction of patient-centered diabetes care.

Enhancing patient satisfaction and increasing treatment compliance: patient education as a fundamental component of PTSD treatment

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the modal mental health problem afflicting combat veterans. In addition to the significant distress resulting from the disorder itself, PTSD has been associated with significant medical comorbidity and increased utilization of medical services. Interventions have historically focused on targeting symptoms directly, with comparatively little attention to systematically educating patients about the etiology and maintenance of the disorder and associated features and treatment issues. This descriptive study summarizes an eight-week PTSD patient education and orientation group. Seventeen patients admitted consecutively to the PTSD Clinic at a large VA hospital completed surveys of patient satisfaction with services and motivation to comply with treatment regimens upon completion of the group. Participants reported very high satisfaction with services, increased awareness of PTSD treatment options, greater optimism and symptom improvement and enhanced motivation to continue with treatment as a result of attending the group.

Diabetes education in the USSR: how to begin?

To determine patients' attitudes towards diabetes education in the Soviet Union, a questionnaire was distributed throughout the country. From 10,000 completed forms, returned from all regions of the USSR, 2000 were analysed in detail. Responders represented all age and social groups, but patients with shorter duration of diabetes, and women, responded more readily. More than 41% of patients were unaware of the type of diabetes they had, the actual proportions of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes among respondents being 31 and 63%. Rates of chronic complications derived from patients' answers suggest a high rate of underestimation by local physicians. Only 17% of Type 1 and 8% of Type 2 diabetic patients believed that they knew enough about diabetes, and 99.9% of all respondents wanted to learn more about their disease. Independently of the type of diabetes and educational level, patients would accept the information on diabetes from periodicals (63-68%), television (48-63%), booklets for patients (29-31%), as well as attending diabetes courses or classes (30-38%). They expressed preference for teaching conducted by physicians (74-85%) rather than nurses (1-4%). The main areas of interest for Type 1 diabetic patients were technical devices, (artificial pancreas and insulin pumps (85%] and late diabetic complications (78%), and for patients with Type 2 diabetes late complications (84%) and diet (72%). Some respondents (20-25%) expected the use of herbs and other 'non-traditional' methods to be effective in treatment and curing of diabetes. The least requested topics were acute complications (18-34%) and metabolic self-monitoring (0.025%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)