Outcome of Telephone-Messages Intervention On Self-Care Practices Among Diabetic Patients in A Secondary Health Facility in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study examined the outcome of telephone-messages intervention on self-care practices among diabetic patients in a secondary health facility in Oyo State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study was to examine the baseline, post-intervention and 6th week follow-up levels of self-care practices among diabetic patients exposed to telephone-messages intervention. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design. The study population for the study was Type 2 Diabetes patients enrolled in selected Hospital in Oyo State. Thirty participants were selected through multi-stage sampling procedure from a health facility in Oyo State. The instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire, which sought information on self-care practices. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analysed the collected data. The study revealed that patients’ self-care sub domain variable proportion such as physical activities, healthy eating, monitoring blood glucose, compliance with medication and risk reduction behavior was low in the baseline. At the immediate post-intervention, the respondents’ physical activities had a mean of 8.83 with SD of 3.65; healthy eating 9.03 with SD of 3.72; monitoring blood glucose activities 10.70 with SD of 4.3; compliance with medication activities 12.40 with SD of 4.35; risk reduction 12.17 with SD of 4.50; and foot care 11.27 with SD of 5.03. The study also revealed that at 6th week of follow-up, the respondents’ physical activities had a mean of 11.13 with SD of 0.97; healthy eating 11.27 with SD of 0.69; monitoring blood glucose activities 13.50 with SD of 1.25; compliance with medication activities 14.03 with SD of 1.07; risk reduction 13.93 with SD of 1.34; and foot care 13.83 with SD of 1.34. The study concluded that periodic telephone messages on diabetics positively influenced performance of self-care practices. It was recommended among others that Doctors and nurses should include short messages on diabetes to patients as a reminder to focus better self-care practices.

Keywords: Telephone-Messages, Intervention, Self-care Practices, Diabetes,