Evidence-based medicine for diabetes educators: a pilot study.
OBJECTIVE
Health-care professionals are increasingly asked to communicate research results to patients and consumers. Diabetes educators play a decisive role in the information process of patients with diabetes. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is not a regular part of their training in Germany. We performed a pilot study to test whether the inclusion of a short EBM module into the standard graduate programme is feasible and leads to a meaningful increase in knowledge and skills.


METHODS
The study group consisted of 121 diabetes educator trainees. The EBM modules were delivered in 1- to 3-day courses. Increase in knowledge and skills were assessed using a questionnaire covering three main elements: (i) general aspects of an intervention study, (ii) effect size calculation, (iii) general aspects of evidence-based patient information and communicating numbers as patient orientated statements. Two researchers independently rated the assessment sheets.


RESULTS
The majority of participants rated the course as important and useful but too short. Knowledge and skills in EBM increased after the course by 2 points out of 13.5 (mean score before course 5 +/- 2 vs. 7 +/- 2; P < 0.001). Inter-rater reliability analysis using Cohen's Kappa coefficients demonstrated substantial to almost perfect agreement for 10 of the 13 items.


CONCLUSIONS
Our pilot study demonstrates that EBM education for diabetes educator trainees is feasible. However, the increase in knowledge and skills appears not to be clinically relevant. Short EBM courses are unlikely to yield important effects. More intensified course formats are necessary to meet the needs of diabetes educators.
Meyer
G
G
University of Hamburg, Unit of Health Sciences and Education, Hamburg, Germany. gabriele.meyer@uni-hamburg.de
Köpke
S
S
Lenz
M
M
Kasper
J
J
Mühlhauser
I
I
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000193:education*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*