Impact of diabetes education and peer support group on the metabolic parameters of patients with Diabetes Mellitus (Type 1 and Type 2)

Aim This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of diabetes education (DE) alone versus diabetes education plus peer support group (DE+PS) in improving metabolic parameters in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods We retrospectively included a total of 188 subjects with DM who were seen at the Diabetes Centre and Primary Care clinics at Queens Hospital Centre, Jamaica, New York. The patients were categorized into three main groups: (1) control group (n=62), who received primary care only, (2) DE group (n=63), who received primary care plus diabetes teaching from a certified diabetes nurse educator and (3) DE+PS group (n=63) who received education in diabetes and who joined a peer support group for at least two or more sessions. The mean change from baseline in hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), weight, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG-C) was calculated after 3 follow up visits. Results The patients in DE group were observed to have statistically significant decrease in mean HbA1C (mean change: -0.78%, p=0.013), TC (mean change: -16.89 mg/dL, p=0.01) and LDL-C (mean change: -11.75 mg/dL, p=0.04) from baseline to final follow. The same group also exhibited consistently significant reductions in HbA1C and LDL-C throughout from the third month to the thirteenth month of follow up. The patients in DE+PS group had a moderate decrease in HbA1C, SBP, TG-C and weight, and an increase in HDL-C, LDL-C and BMI in the final follow up, but all were not statistically significant. Conclusion The present study suggested that participation in DE may assist with optimizing metabolic parameters such as HbA1C, TC and LDL-C levels in patients with diabetes. This benefit may perpetuate through time. The addition of peer support group to DE may or may not confer additional benefit.