The Effects of Nutrition and Physical Activity Education on Knowledge and Glycemic Control Among Persons with Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes affects millions of people worldwide. Approximately 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the United States population has diabetes (Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2014). Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2010 and is projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the seventh leading cause of death globally by 2030. The purpose of this evidence-based project was to provide nutrition and physical activity education in an effort to improve diabetes knowledge and glycemic control among persons with type 2 diabetes. Hemoglobin A1c levels and Diabetes Knowledge Test scores were compared from the pre-intervention phase of nutrition and physical activity education to the post-intervention phase three months later. For this project, Stetler’s Model was employed as the theoretical framework to support implementation of the EBP, and Pender’s Health Promotion Model (HPM) was used to guide the intervention. Participants were recruited from a private, primary care office in Lake County, Indiana. Seventeen participants (n=17) were recruited and completed the intervention phase of this project. Data was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results demonstrated a statistically significant increase in diabetes knowledge among participants three months following the intervention (z-score=-2.546, p\u3c0.05). However, due to several factors including health maintenance compliance from the participants or their healthcare providers, changes in glycemic control among the participants were able to be determined in only two participants. The findings suggest that implementation of diabetes education in primary care practice can improve diabetes knowledge