HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Christensen, N. K. Articles by Pfister, R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Christensen, N. K. Articles by Pfister, R. Social Bookmarking                What's this?

Cost Savings and Clinical Effectiveness of an Extension Service Diabetes Program

Address correspondence and requests for reprints to: Nedra K. Christensen, PhD, RD, Utah State University Nutrition and Food Science Department, 1213 E. 2100 St., Salt Lake City, UT 84106.

Objective. To evaluate the cost savings and clinical effectiveness of a Cooperative Extension Service diabetes education program for improving nutrition knowledge, food portioning skills, hemoglobin A_1c (A1C), and anthropometric indices.

Design. Clients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes enrolled in a 3-month diabetes education course focused on food portioning skills. Pre- and post-course anthropometric measurements, a written food portion test, an observational food portioning skill test, and an A1C test were administered and scored. Paired t tests were calculated between pre- and post-course scores to measure statistical significance.

Results. Data analysis showed improvement in food portion knowledge written test scores (49.67% pre- and 59.56% post-course, P = 0.004), food portioning skills (out of a possible score of 5, 2.43 pre-, 4.29 post-course, P = 0.023), A1C results (7.16% pre-, 6.43% post-course, P = 0.000), body mass index (BMI) (32.60 kg/m² pre-, 31.78 kg/m² post-course, P = 0.000), weight (202.58 lb pre-, 199.74 lb post-course, P = 0.000), waist circumference (42.43 inches pre-, 41.16 inches post-course, P = 0.000), hip circumference (45.96 inches pre-, 45.36 inches post-course, P = 0.000), and waist-to-hip ratio (0.92 pre-, 0.91 post-course, P = 0.000).

Conclusions/Applications. Evaluation of the Utah State University Extension Service diabetes education program showed improved nutrition knowledge, anthropometric measures, and glucose control. These improvements have been estimated to reduce medical costs by $94,010.

CiteULike    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. K. Christensen, E. B. King, S. Hardy, and R. Pfister Food Practices and Preferences in Youth With Diabetes Diabetes Spectr, January 1, 2007; 20(1): 33 - 39. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]