A study on improving care in diabetes by evaluating patient empowerment through eHealth Technology

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a lifestyle illness affecting majority of the population worldwide. The effective management of Diabetes Mellitus is essential to prevent long term complications (American Diabetic Association, 2016). The advent of newer technologies has provided greater possibilities in diabetes self-management, smart-phone applications are one of these technical advancement. Also encouraging people with diabetes for diabetes self-control is powerful through empowering them through health education. The objectives of the study to examine the effectiveness of eHealth technology by using a freely available smart-phone application in diabetic self-care and also to study patient empowerment through health education in improving diabetic care. This study is divide into three parts, the part 1 is a cross sectional study, Part 2 was a pilot study and Part 3 is a cross sectional study. This included a convenient sampling and the study was carried out for a period of six months. The analysis of the study was done using SPSS software. Correlation was applied to part 1 of the study, which revealed that the smart-phone prevalence was more in the younger age people whose income is above Rs.1,00,000/- and whose educational level is above degree. Part 2 study was analyzed with the paired t test which depicted that there was a significant relationship between the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level for intervention and control group. And lastly the part 3 study was analyzed using the paired t test which revealed a significant relationship between the pretest and post test scores for Diabetic Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ) also the correlation test shows that the education level and duration of diabetics has a significant relationship. Part 1 of the study shows that the reach of smart phones was more in younger individuals with salary above 1,00,000/- and education level above degree. Part 2 of the study, shows that the intervention using smart-phone applications in diabetic self-care is effective. And part 3 of the study reveals that the patient empowerment in the form of health education will bring about positive behavioral changes in the individual which will aid in diabetes management. The study concludes that the eHealth applications and patient empowerment is effective in diabetes management. The present diabetic population lack sufficient knowledge on the usage of smart- phones but the future generation will be well versed with this and hence the implementation of eHealth strategies is promising for the future. Patient empowerment is very important aspect in health care this has to be considered as the patients can take part in the decision making process pertaining to their health with the health care team.