The effect of therapeutic education program on quality of life among type 2 diabetic North-African patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic non-communicable disease with major impact on health in general and quality of life (QoL) in particular. The ultimate goal of all health interventions is to reduce the burden of this disease.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of therapeutic education program on the QoL among patients with T2DM.

Methods: Between May 2021 and July 2022, 320 outpatients were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial in Sfax, Tunisia. The experimental group received the therapeutic education program, whereas the control group received only standard care. For data collection, the Arabic version of the Diabetes Quality of Life (DQoL-Arabic) questionnaire was used.

Results: In total, 263 patients completed the intervention, 132 in the experimental group and 131 in the control group. In terms of the main baseline characteristics, the two groups were comparable. After the intervention, there was a significant difference in all domains of QoL scores (median [interquartile]) between the experimental and control groups: satisfaction (3.14 [2.64-3.36] vs. 3.57 [3.43-3.71], p<0.001, respectively), impact (2.09 [1.91-2.36] vs. 2.45 [2.27 2.64], p<0.001, respectively) and worries (2.50 [2.25-2.75] vs. 3.00 [2.75 3.14], p<0.001, respectively). The QoL improves over time in the experimental group (3.01 [2.79-3.17] vs. 2.59 [2.21-2.80], p<0.001, respectively) and remains comparable in the control group (2.99 [2.81-3.14] vs. 3.01 [2.81-3.15], p=0.724, respectively).

Conclusions: The benefits of implementing an educational program among patients with T2DM are observed in terms of all QoL domains.