The effect of teach-back education on foot self-care among patients with type II diabetes mellitus

Foot problems are common among patients with diabetes mellitus. In most cases, these problems finally result in amputation. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of teach-back education on foot self-care among patients with type II diabetes. This controlled quasi-experimental study was conducted on 70 patients with type II diabetes referring to Birjand Diabetes Clinic, Birjand, Iran. Patients were randomly and equally assigned to the teach-back and the control groups. The study data were collected via the Orem’s nursing assessment form and a researcher-made foot self-care behaviors questionnaire. Based on patients’ educational needs and self-care deficits, foot self-care educations were provided personally and face-to-face to patients in the teach-back group in two to three sessions. Each session lasted 25–30 minutes. Patients in the control group received only the educations which were routinely provided in the study setting. The study questionnaires were recompleted through interviewing participants seven days and also one and three months after the intervention. The analysis of the study data was performed via the SPSS software (v. 16.0). The study groups were compared regarding patients’ demographic characteristics and foot self-care behaviors scores by conducting the Chi-square, the Fisher’s exact, and the independent-samples t test. In addition, within-group comparisons were performed by doing within-group analysis of variance and the Bonferroni’s post hoc test at a significance level of 0.05. The results of within-group analysis of variance and the Bonferroni’s post hoc test showed that in the teach-back group, the mean score of foot self-care at seven days and one and three months after the intervention was significantly higher than pretest readings (P<0.001). Moreover, all of the three pretest-posttest mean differences of self-care scores in the teach-back group were significantly greater than the control group (P<0.001). One and three months after the study intervention, the mean score of foot self-care in the teach-back group was significantly higher than both the pretest readings in the same group and the control group. These findings imply that teach-back education is effective in enhancing information retention. Using this technique in larger-scale studies is recommended for improving patients’ self-care ability.