Effects of a Motivational Interview Intervention on Self-Efficacy, Self-Care Behavior, and Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Motivation is an important factor in disease management for diabetic patients. However, motivational strengthening interventions have been inadequately effective in effecting behavior change in this group. This study was designed to investigate the effect of a motivational interview intervention on self-efficacy, self-care behavior, and blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes. The target population comprised patients with type 2 diabetes in two medical wards of a regional hospital in the southern Taiwan. The 112 participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 56) and control group (n = 56). Over a three month period, the experimental group received 6 motivational interview sessions of 50 minutes each in addition to usual diabetes care, while the control group received usual diabetes care on the ward. Both groups completed the demographic questionnaire, Chinese version of Diabetes Self-Efficacy Scale, Diabetes Self-Care Behavior Scale, glycosylated hemoglobin level pre-test, and 3 months post-test survey. The results were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 for Windows. A total of 55 patients in the experimental group and 52 patients in the control group completed the study. After analysis, significant inter-group differences in self-efficacy and self-care behavior were found between the experimental group and the control group at pre-test and three-month post-test (p < .001). For the experimental group, the three-month post-test score and glycated hemoglobin value were higher than at pre-test. The three-month post-test value was significantly lower (p < .001) than the pre-test value, and the change effect in the experimental group was better than that in the control group. There was a significant difference in the stages of change between pre-test and post-test (χ2 = 43.89, p < .001), and the change effect in the experimental group was better than that in the control group. The proposed motivational interview intervention can help patients with type 2 diabetes admitted to medical wards improve their self-efficacy, self-care behavior, and glycated hemoglobin values. In the future, nursing education should improve the teaching of motivational interview skills to allow nurses to conduct effective interviews quickly during treatment, increase their patients' motivation to self-control blood sugar, and enable patients to learn blood sugar control skills before discharge to achieve effective blood sugar control.