Assessing Home Food Environment and Diabetes Self-management Among Adult Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Type 2 diabetes and its complications have become an important public health problem, affecting nearly 350 million adults worldwide. However, successfully managing type 2 diabetes through proper nutrition and healthy lifestyles remains challenging for many diabetes patients. In this proposed project the investigators examined the impact of diabetes self-management education using text messaging on increasing awareness of CVD risk perception, dietary intake, physical activity, and diabetes self-management, and quality of life among adults with type 2 diabetes among adults with Type 2 diabetes using a quasi experimental design. The study sample included 79 adult type 2 diabetes patients (30 years or older). Inclusion criteria for the study sample of adult type II diabetes patients were: adults ages 30 or older, English speaking, and Hemoglobin A1C levels > 6.5%.

Adult type 2 diabetes patients were recruited from the Center for Diabetes & Nutritional Health, an outpatient diabetes clinic of Methodist Hospital in Omaha with the assistance of Certified Diabetes Educators and Registered Dietitians. Diagnosis of type 2 diabetes were based on patient self-report and verified by the Co-Primary Investigator (who is Certified Diabetes educator and registered dietitian at the Methodist Hospital. The recruited adult type 2 diabetes patients were assigned into the intervention group (40 participants) and control group (39 participants). The intervention group received 3 messages weekly consisting of nutrition education and diabetes self-management information and skills for 3 months (12 weeks). The messages consisted of information on how to increase fruits and vegetables and reduce high-fat and sugary foods intake, increase the availability of fruits and vegetables and reduce high-fat and sugary foods in the home, strategies to increase diabetes self-management skills, and awareness of cardiovascular disease risk perception and knowledge. The text messages were derived from the American Association of Diabetes Educator (AADE) handouts ("Reducing Risks", "Monitoring", "Healthy Coping", "Problem Solving", "Taking Medication", "Healthy Eating", and "Exercise") Text messages were positive and motivating and included a link to a specific AADE7 handout that allows participants to open and retrieve the specific AADE7 handout. Text messages were sent by the project investigators to the participants in the intervention group via a free computer-based text messaging service. The computer was password protected and can only be accessed by the investigators. Participant's phone numbers used for text message intervention were kept private. Only investigators and research assistant know the participant's cell phone numbers used for text message intervention and each participant's cell number was not shared with anyone else including other study participants. Text messages were sent by the project investigators or research assistant to the patients and were one-way text messages, meaning that patient did not need to reply to the text messages. If a patient had a medical concern about his/her diabetes, he/she was advised not to send a text message to the investigator, but to contact his/her physician or call 911 instead. The control group did not receive text messages. The participants (both intervention and control group) completed surveys at baseline (before study begins) and at the conclusion of the study (at three month of the intervention) about their dietary and lifestyle habits, diabetes self-care management, awareness of cardiovascular diseases and home food environment. The investigators also collected patient's self-report Hemoglobin A1C values at baseline and at the conclusion of the study (at three month of the intervention).