14 DAY TRIAL // A series of new studies appear to demonstrate that behavior interventions can be especially useful for people suffering from diabetes. Many patients leave their blood sugar and insulin levels spiral out of control, which puts them at risk of developing various complications.
Even without these complications, diabetes is known to be a risk factor for conditions such as blindness, cardiovascular disorders, obesity and so on. By not keeping their insulin levels in check, patients risk exacerbating the risks they're already in.
Behavioral and educational interventions may be exactly what people who control their diabetes poorly need in order to ensure that they remain as safe as possible. This idea is expanded upon in three new scientific investigations, PsychCentral reports.
The papers were published in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Archives of Internal Medicine, as a part of the Health Care Reform series. All underline the importance of keeping diabetes in check as much as possible, and as often as possible.
In the first study, investigators at the Joslin Diabetes Center, led by expert Katie Weinger, EdD, setup up an experiment that allowed them to evaluate the efficacy of behavioral interventions aimed at improving glycemic control.
The work included 222 test subjects, all of which had been suffering from diabetes for a long time, and had a history of poor management. Participants were separated in three groups – structured behavioral treatment, group attention control and individual control.
Overall, patients displayed glycemic improvements regardless of the group they were in. However, the researchers noted that type II diabetes patients showed better performances than those diagnosed with type I diabetes.
“A structured, cognitive behavioral program is more effective than two control interventions in improving glycemia in adults with long-duration diabetes,” the researchers write in their paper.
In the second study, experts from the HealthPartners Research Foundation and HealthPartners Medical Group learned that individual education was the most effective means of boosting insulin monitoring in all diabetes patients.
The third investigation, by scientists at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, revealed that disease management programs aimed at poor diabetes patients are inadequate at this point, and that more measures need to be taken to address this problem.