Intervención educativa en el apego al tratamiento en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 2. Trujillo. Venezuela

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention in the adherence to treatment in Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 patients from an ambulatory in Trujillo State, Venezuela. Methods: Quasi-experimental research was carried out for six months in 35 diabetic patients with a mean age of 59.19 years, mostly married women with complete primary education, household and workers occupations, and a nuclear family type. An educational program was implemented with a multidisciplinary team. The Morisky-Green and Levine Test was applied to determine adherence to treatment, the Diabetometer Test to evaluate knowledge about diabetes, and anthropometric and biochemical parameters were obtained, before and after the educational intervention. Results: The included patients reported an average of 10.4 years with the disease, almost half were hypertensive (45.7%). Before the educational intervention they received predominantly monotherapy (74.3%). The intervention showed significant improvement in anthropometric parameters (p=0.005), most notable in men for body mass index (p=0.004), in fasting and postprandial glycemic (p=0.002), and glycosylated hemoglobin (p=0.000). Adherence to treatment increased from 31.4% to 60%. There was a significant improvement in knowledge about the disease and food beliefs. Conclusion: It is demonstrated the effectiveness of the educational intervention in metabolic control and adherence to treatment, with beneficial changes in the different studied variables.