Understanding the Effectiveness of Diabetes Self-Management Education on Psychological Distress and Self-care Activity Measures

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The psychological distress that people with diabetes experience makes them twice likely to have clinical depression. Diabetes self-management education and support is an effective strategy to improve psychological distress and increase self-care activity measures. However, there has been limited knowledge on the impact of formal diabetes self-management education and support DSME/S on psychological distress among minority populations such as Latinx. The primary objective of this study is to explore the impact of diabetes self-management education on psychological distress and self-care activity measures. This study also explores the impact of demographic variables of the Latinx respondents on psychological distress and self-care activity. Using a pre- and post-test study design, baseline and post-test assessments for the respondents were conducted at week one and week four of the intervention, respectively. Statistical analysis such as descriptive statistics of demographic variables, paired t-test of diabetes distress score and self-care activity measure score, and mixed-method analysis of variance were conducted using Intellectus Statistics. The results found that while the self-management education substantially reduce diabetes distress, it wasn't statistically significant. However, it was found to significantly increase self-care activity measures among Latinx communities. Some impacts of demographic variables such as Sex and overall health were found. Implications to diabetes Education, policymakers, and existing literature have been discussed.