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Evaluating a Multidisciplinary Diabetes Program for Improving Cardiovascular Risk and Glycaemic Control: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Marly Ranasinghe

 With a growing trend favouring fewer medications and greater emphasis on self-management through lifestyle change, health education programs offer a cost-effective and easily implementable method that could pave the future for management of chronic diseases such as diabetes and associated cardiovascular disease. Limited research exists on the efficacy of these programs for improvingcardiovascular disease and diabetes, particularly in regard to objective measures of glycaemic control and cardiovascular risk. Such programs have the potential to be implemented across a wide variety of community settings. In this study, we evaluate a community-based education program aimed at informing, engaging with and empowering patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to make effective lifestyle changes.The significant proportion of patients who underwent nil or positive change in relation to their glycaemic control and cardiac medications highlights the value of education as both a supplementary and stand-alone tool. This is not only convenient and generally preferred by patients, but is also of financial benefit on a patient and government level. Beyond this, these programs may translate to reduction in overall downstream risk associated with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular adverse events. This also acts to reduce the burden on resources and efforts focused on addressing these dreaded further complications, in addition to improving patient prognosis. The research also draws attention to the significance of empowering patients to seize control of their health through supporting them in developing self-management strategies and healthy habits that potentially carry benefit for a lifetime.