Journal of Patient Care

Abstract

Impact of Health Education Interventions in People with Diabetes Mellitus in Africa: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

Doreen Mukona

Health education is important to promote good lifestyle behaviours and prevent/delay onset of type II diabetes
mellitus. There is substantial evidence from developed countries supporting the importance of diabetes selfmanagement
education in promoting adherence to therapy and glycaemic control. The purpose of this systematic
review (SR) was to identify the impact of educational interventions on glycaemic control and other related outcomes
in African populations. Pubmed, CINAHL, EMBASE and Google Scholar data bases were searched. Search terms
for diabetes were; diabetes, hyperglycaemia and diabetes mellitus. Search terms for educational interventions were;
health education, health education model, health education programme, health education framework, health
education intervention and patient education. Included were RCTs that had tested the effectiveness or impact of
health education interventions on people with diabetes mellitus in Africa, had recruited concurrent controls, aimed
to promote good glycaemic control in diabetic patients and focused on at least one area of lifestyle management.
Studies were eliminated if they were not RCTs, were conducted on health professionals, had no accessible full text
article, had recruited mixed populations (diabetic and non-diabetic) and if they did not have English titles and
abstracts. The cut-off period for publications ensured inclusion of current evidence in the systematic review. Nine
studies were included in the SR. Substantial heterogeneity existed among studies thus no head to head comparisons
could be done, hence, there is no reliable evidence favouring superiority of one intervention over another

Published Date: 2020-09-02; Received Date: 2020-05-18