Thomas A Clobes
Objective: To determine how visual reminders affect patient compliance in Type 2 diabetics following the completion of a disease management program, a pretest-posttest randomized design was used. Methods: Patients were recruited following enrollment in a diabetes management course. Classes were randomized into the visual reminder group (VG) or control group (CG). The VG selected an object of importance and one seen frequently, reminding themselves to choose healthy behaviors. Baseline and follow-up data included HbA1c, BMI, and exercise time. Results: For HbA1c, the decrease in the CG was 5.49% (0.56 ± 1.4) while the VG group was 13.3% (1.2 ± 1.6) with no statistical significance between the two groups (p=0.36). From baseline to follow-up, the change in the CG was not statistically significant (p=0.3) while the change in the VG was (p=0.04). For BMI, the CG reduced 0.53% while the mean reduction with the VG group was 1.5%. The difference between the groups was not statistically significant (p=0.61). For exercise time, the CG was increased 18.4% while the mean increase in the VG group was 82.0%. The difference was not statistically significant (p=0.27). The change from baseline for both the CG and VG (p=0.004 and 0.02, respectively). Conclusion: Though trending positively, this research cannot conclusively confirm the value of a visual reminder in changing patients’ health behavior to manage their diabetes. Nonetheless, when considering the clinically significant differences between the CG and VG with greater improvements in all measured variables, implementation of a visual reminder into diabetes management should be considered.