Impact of Diabetic Risk Reduction Package on Life Style and Biophysiological Measures

Abstract

Background: Prediabetes is defined as impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance with fasting blood glucose 100–125 mg/dl. Prediabetes is considered as a distinct entity under the classification of ICD-10 with diagnostic code R73-09. It is a reversible condition projecting the last window opportunity against impeding diabetes. Diabetes can be considerably overcome through simple and safe measures to promote health and prevent development of diabetes from prediabetes. Aim: The study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of diabetes risk reduction package on life style variable and biophysiological measures among prediabetic employees. Methods: Quantitative research approach with quasi experimental design was used. A total of 178 prediabetic employees aged between 20 and 60 years, who could understand English and were teaching in the selected schools formed the samples, with 90 and 88 prediabetic employees each from 20 selected schools of Thiruvallur District, formed the experimental and control group. Samples were selected using IDRS and FBS. Enumerative sampling technique was used to select the samples. Data were collected using the questionnaire prepared by the investigator. The life style variables and biophysiological measures were assessed at an interval of 2 months for about 6 months. Results: Statistical analysis of the background variables revealed homogeneity between the experimental and control group in the pre-test. The comparison between life style variables score in pretest and posttest 1,2 and 3 within the experimental group revealed a statistically high significant score F=526.80at p<0.001 whereas there was no significant difference in control group. The calculated student independant “t” test of 1.97 and 4.79 in relation to BMI and FBS showed statistical significance at p<0.05 and p<0.001 level. The correlation with life style and biophysiological measures also revealed negative moderate correlation indicating that as life style varies there is a reduction in BMI and FBS. These results indicated that the diabetic risk reduction package brought about good correlation between lifestyle and biophysiological measures. Conclusion: The results indicated that the intervention tool brought significant reduction in biophysiological measures among prediabetics which proved the effectiveness of DRRP. It was found to be simple and practicable for maintaining the healthy life and preventing the progression to diabetes by gain of adequate knowledge on prediabetes. Recommendation: Good life style practices during prediabetes can help the employees to prevent its progression to diabetes in future