LAUSR

Aim: The prevalence of DM increased dramatically from 7.2% to 13.7% in Turkey. Ministry of Health has been supporting diabetes school, a model of structured group education, since 2014. The efficacy of this programme has not been evaluated beyond hemoglobin A1c control. In this study, we aimed to evaluate knowledge of diabetes before and immediately after the school. Methods: We recruited patients with a diagnosis of DM who were registered to diabetes school in September 2017. The programme was executed by a multidiciplinary team as 90 minutes sessions a week for 4 consecutive weeks. The participants who attended at least 3 sessions were given certificates. Due to low sociocultural profile true/false version of Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Scale (MDKS), which was translated into Turkish, was used. The scale includes 20 items regarding nutrition, comorbidities, blood glucose control, exercise, medication, and complications. The patients chose true/false or “don’t know” for each statement in the questionaire. Results: Ninety four patients registered to the school. However only 54 attended the programme and 41 agreed to take the survey. Among them 25 patients completed ≥3 sessions and 23 participated in the survey before and after the programme. The most common correctly identified answers were related to the items regarding the importance of regular check-up in detecting and preventing complications (before: 69%, after: 100%). The number of patients correctly identifying more than half of the statements was 15 (38%) before and 17 (73%) after the programme. Among 23 patients who completed both the programme and the surveys, 19 (82%) showed significant improvement in correct answers. Conclusions: Participation and adherence to diabetes school programme was low. Despite low number of patients studied, knowledge of diabetes improved after the programme. MDKS can be used along with school programmes to select the subgroup of patients that need more simplified, interactive, and repetitive sessions. Disclosure B. Taskiran: None. G.B. Cansu: None. R. Mutluay: None.