Effect of telephone education on diabetic retinopathy screening

Abstract

Objective To observe the effects of telephone education and mail education on diabetic patients undertaking diabetic retinopathy screening.Methods Three hundred outpatients with type 2 diabetes who never having done diabetic retinopathy screening were divided into control group,mail group and telephone group by computer random method,100 patients per group.Patients in control group were given conventional treatment while patients in mail group and telephone group were given additional mail education or telephone education once respectively.The number of patients finishing diabetic retinopathy screening during following 6 months in these three groups was compared.Demographic data of all patients and average fast blood glucose,postprandial blood glucose,glycosylated hemoglobin in the whole study were recorded.Results No significant differences were found in sex,age,abode,education,income,convenience of visit,contentment of blood glucose control,awareness of diabetic retinopathy,body mass index,duration of diabetes,fast blood glucose,postprandial blood glucose,glycosylated hemoglobin and chronic complications among three groups (P＞0.05).Ratio of finishing diabetic retinopathy screening was 26.0％ (25/96),16.2％ (16/99),45.7％ (43/94) in three groups respectively,difference was significant (x2＝21.105,P ＜ 0.05).Compared with control group,completion rate of diabetic retinopathy in telephone group increased 75.8％ (P＜0.01),completion rate was lower in mail group,but difference was not significant (P ＞0.05).Female with higher education and longer duration of diabetes were more possible to finish the diabetic retinopathy screening.Conclusion Telephone education is an effective method to promote diabetic retinopathy screening in patients with type 2 diabetes. Key words: Diabetes mellitus ; Diabetic retinopathy ; Screening ;