Self-Care Program With Multimedia Software Support Effect on Quality of Life in Patients With Diabetes Type II

Abstract

Background: Different studies have shown that health level, performance statutes and quality of life in chronic patients are less than the expected level especially in patients with diabetes. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a self-care program with a multimedia software support on quality of life in patients with diabetes type II. Patients and Methods: This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial in which 60 patients who had been referred to the diabetes clinic of Arak city were randomly divided to experimental (n = 30) and control (n = 30) groups. Diabetes Quality of Life Brief Clinical Inventory was used for determining the quality of life. Data were collected before and two months after the intervention for both groups. An educational program with equal content was conducted for both the experimental group (self-care program with multimedia software support in two sessions) and control group (lecture and presentation with PowerPoint in one session). Data analysis was made by the SPSS 16 software. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups in mean scores of quality of life before the intervention (P = 0.97) while after the intervention, the difference between the two groups was significant (P = 0.029). Applying the self-care program with software support improved quality of life of the experimental group after the intervention (P < 0.0001) while there was no significant difference in mean score of quality of life in the control group after eight weeks (P = 0.051). Conclusions: According to the results of this study, the examined method is a simple, cheap, effective and attractive intervention program for patients with diabetes.