Diabetes educational programs are underutilized

(Reuters Health) - A study suggests that the diabetics who have just known their condition do not take advantage of educational programs that would help them handle the disease.

With those programs, patients learn to take care of themselves, which is key to controlling blood glucose.
"The agenda of educational programs for the self-strengtheNational Center for Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion of CDC.

It also includes "healthy lifestyle, glucose monitoring, prevention, detection and treatment of diabetic complications, and the design of personalized strategies to make decisions," he added.

"DSMT improve glycemic control, which reduces complications, hospitalizations and health expenses," he said.

When the LI team reviewed the benefits of almost 100,000 adults with private coverage diagnosed with diabetes in the 2009-2012 period, he observed that less than 7 percent had participated in these programs.

Older adults, insulin users and those who lived in the central area of ​​the north of the country and cities were the most likely to register in the DSMT, according to the team in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Even so, participation did not exceed 15 percent in any of those cases."Although many know that classes exist, they do not concur when they derive them," Li said.

Therefore, he considered that it is necessary to improve the promotion of these programs among doctors, patients and family members.He said that it would be very useful to spread that the DSMT Sonel foundation for diabetes care.

In the study, all participants had private coverage, but the author assured that Medicare and many programs cover the cost of the DSMT.

"Forty states force health insurance to agree the DSMT, but there are still private plans that do not and many include a copayment," Li clarified.

Kate Lorig, director of the Patient Education Research Center of the Stanford Faculty of Medicine.

And he explained that the system of incorporation of these programs to Medicare's reimbursements is very complex, restrictive and expensive for the program.

"This greatly limits the number of programs that request recognition," he said.

"I think that the real figure of patients who participate in the programs is twice or triple the proportionate. Even so, it is still very low," he added.

A solution to improve that trend is to reduce barriers to access the reimbursements of these services.
Source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, online 21 of November 2014.

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