The impact of diabetes education on blood glucose self-monitoring among older adults.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether attending diabetes education is associated with blood glucose self-monitoring among unselected older adults in routine clinical care.


METHODS
A cross-sectional population-based study was carried out on 15,190 people with diabetes aged 65-79 years. Subjects were identified using a registry of doctor-diagnosed diabetes derived from administrative data, and attendance at diabetes education centres (DECs) was determined from a separate registry of DEC utilization for 2006. Outcomes were derived using administrative data. The primary outcome was prescriptions filled for glucose self-monitoring supplies. The secondary outcomes were prescriptions for antihypertensive drugs, prescriptions for lipid-lowering drugs and eye examinations.


RESULTS
DEC attendance was associated with glucose self-monitoring, after adjusting for baseline differences between attendees and non-attendees (adjusted odds ratio 6.45, 95% confidence interval 5.61 to 7.42). All of the secondary outcomes were also independently associated with DEC attendance.


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that diabetes education is associated with self-management behaviour in real-world clinical care. These findings support the effectiveness of self-management education programmes to increase self-care behaviours.
Millar
Adam
A
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Cauch-Dudek
Karen
K
Shah
Baiju R
BR
D000368:Aged; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D015397:Program Evaluation