Effectiveness of Individualized Instruction on Knowledge and Practice Regarding Prevention of Complications among Diabetic Patients

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of individualized instruction on knowledge and practice regarding prevention of complications among diabetic patients in a selected community, Ernakulum district. The main objectives were to assess the level of knowledge and practice of diabetic patients with regard to prevention of complications before and after individualized instruction and to find the association of pre-test knowledge and practice of diabetic patients with selected demographic variables. A one group pre-test post-test design and a convenient sampling technique were used in this study. A pre-test was conducted among sixty diabetes patients by using a structured knowledge questionnaire and a rating scale. An average forty-five minutes was taken to collect data from each subjects and provide the individualized instruction. The post-test knowledge was assessed on seventh day and practice was on the fourteenth day. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed, 83.3 percentage had good knowledge, 10 percentage had an average and 6.7 percentage had poor knowledge in the pre-test. Whereas, in the post-test, 95.0 percentage had good knowledge and 5.0 percentage had an average knowledge. Regarding practice 13.30 percentage had good practice and 86.70 percentage had average practice in the pre-test score, whereas 66.70 percentage had good practice and 33.70 percentage had average practice in the posttest. There was a statistically significant association found between the level of knowledge with duration of diabetes and health related information (p less than 0.01) and a significant association between the level of self-reported practice with duration of reading health related information (p less than 0.01). Keywords: Complications, diabetic patients, individualized instruction, knowledge, practice