The diabetes education material on diabetes for website: Results of a validation process

OBJECTIVE

To validate an educational material on diabetes through an expert consensus for its implementation into a web site.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

An observational study was carried out in a group of health professionals, for which an educational material was developed for patients with diabetes. Topics included nutrition, physical exercise, control indicators, complications, pharmacological treatment, among others. The language, text and figures were focused on easy comprehension, additionally, a section of didactic activities to be answered by the patient with diabetes at the end of each module was included. To evaluate the educational material by health professionals, an instrument was designed and validated. Once all the educational material was available, each of the modules was sent by e-mail to at least three clinical experts in the assigned topic, as well as the instrument for the evaluation of the module.

RESULTS

Thirty-seven experts were included in the study, 76% rated the educational modules evaluated as highly adequate, while only 24% rated them as adequate. The instrument used obtained a good level of internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.92. In the dimensions of the instrument, the lowest Cronbach's alpha score was that of "call-to-action", with a value of 0.71.

CONCLUSION

The diabetes educational material was rated as highly appropriate by the clinical experts. The developed instrument has an adequate content validity, as well as a good level of internal consistency.

Use of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Analogs in Children: Update by an International Consortium

This update, written by authors designated by multiple pediatric endocrinology societies (see List of Participating Societies) from around the globe, concisely addresses topics related to changes in GnRHa usage in children and adolescents over the last decade. Topics related to the use of GnRHa in precocious puberty include diagnostic criteria, globally available formulations, considerations of benefit of treatment, monitoring of therapy, adverse events, and long-term outcome data. Additional sections review use in transgender individuals and other pediatric endocrine related conditions. Although there have been many significant changes in GnRHa usage, there is a definite paucity of evidence-based publications to support them. Therefore, this paper is explicitly not intended to evaluate what is recommended in terms of the best use of GnRHa, based on evidence and expert opinion, but rather to describe how these drugs are used, irrespective of any qualitative evaluation. Thus, this paper should be considered a narrative review on GnRHa utilization in precocious puberty and other clinical situations. These changes are reviewed not only to point out deficiencies in the literature but also to stimulate future studies and publications in this area.