The Effect of Home-Based Self- Care Education on the Quality of Life of Diabetic Patients

Background and objective: Self-care in diabetic patients refers to individual’s decisions and measures for adaptation to the disease and improvement of health status. These measures include behaviors such as compliance with a healthy diet, physical activity, self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), drug use and foot care. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of home and hospital-based self-care education on quality of life in diabetic patients. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 40 patients with type 2 diabetic were divided into two groups: Home-based and hospital-based education in Zabol, Iran in 2017. Subjects were selected using purposive sampling technique. After being collected, the data were analyzing during SPSS ver.23. Findings: Mean ± SD of quality of life(QOL) in the hospital and home-based education groups was 40.3% ± 6.7% and 40.9 ± 7.3% before and 37.9 ± 4.6 and 51.7 ± 3.02 after self-care education, respectively. The results did not show a significant difference between the two groups the before self-care education (P=0.730). However, there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the mean QOL (P<0.001) Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that homebased self-care education is an effective method for diabetic patients to improve the quality of life(QOL) of these patients. Therefore, it is recommended to use this educational approach to educate patients and promote their general health. Keywords: Self-care; Home-based education; Patients with type 2 diabetes; Quality of life; Quasi-experimental research