Literacy-appropriate educational materials and brief counseling improve diabetes self-management

ObjectiveIn this pilot study, we evaluated the impact of providing patients with a literacy-appropriate diabetes education guide accompanied by brief counseling designed for use in primary care.MethodsWe provided the Living with Diabetes guide and brief behavior change counseling to 250 English and Spanish speaking patients with type 2 diabetes. Counseling sessions using collaborative goal setting occurred at baseline and by telephone at 2 and 4 weeks. We measured patients’ activation, self-efficacy, diabetes distress, knowledge, and self-care at baseline and 3-month follow-up.ResultsStatistically significant (p ≤ 0.001) and clinically important (effect sizes = 0.29–0.42) improvements were observed in participants’ activation, self-efficacy, diabetes-related distress, self-reported behaviors, and knowledge. Improvements were similar across literacy levels. Spanish speakers experienced both greater improvement in diabetes-related distress and less improvement in self-efficacy levels than English speakers.ConclusionA diabetes self-management support package combining literacy-appropriate patient education materials with brief counseling suitable for use in primary care resulted in important short-term health-related psychological and behavioral changes across literacy levels.Practice implicationsCoupling literacy-appropriate education materials with brief counseling in primary care settings may be an effective and efficient strategy for imparting skills necessary for diabetes self-management.