Increasing Awareness of Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents Through Theatre

ABSTRACT\ud INCREASING AWARENESS OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IN\ud ADOLESCENTS THROUGH THEATRE\ud by\ud Margaret Curry\ud Master of Science in Nursing\ud California State University, Chico\ud Spring 2009\ud Education and prevention of type 2 diabetes in the adolescent population\ud should be a high priority among school officials and healthcare providers. The purpose\ud of this research study was to educate adolescents on type 2 diabetes and to increase\ud awareness of this disease. The Health Promotion Model developed by Nola Pender was\ud the theoretical framework used in this study. This model applies behavioral science???s\ud understanding of learning to the area of health promotion.\ud A time series design was an appropriate choice for this study and specifically,\ud a one-group before-after design was used. The students were in seventh and\ud eighth grade and enrolled in physical education classes at a local elementary school.\ud There were 57 students recruited and 47 participants completed the study. The researcher\ud used a diabetes educational program geared towards kindergarten through\ud eighth grade. The\ud viii\ud students received a pre-test, watched an informational session and play on type 2 diabetes,\ud and completed a post-test. The researcher graded each test according to a standardized\ud answer sheet. All possible answers for the test were addressed during the lecture\ud portion of the performance. The graded test scores were collected and placed on an Excel\ud spreadsheet for data analysis.\ud The main goal of this study was to address the research question ???will educating\ud seventh and eighth graders on type 2 diabetes increase their awareness of the disease????\ud This awareness can be demonstrated through an increase in the students??? test\ud scores. An average pre-test score among the 47 subjects was 78%. After the informational\ud session and play, the average post-test scores were 82%. This was a 6% increase\ud from baseline testing. Although an encouraging statistic, this data was further explored.\ud The type 2 diabetes educational program used in this study was instrumental\ud in its design and execution. The strength of peer education in this program cannot be\ud understated. In this setting, students can make a difference in the lives of others. It is the\ud hope of the researcher that further study into the effectiveness of this program can be\ud pursued. The importance of this educational tool is far reaching and could be adopted\ud into other school districts. It is through knowledge and understanding that we might influence\ud our youth.CSU, Chic