The Use of Diabetes Technology to Educate and Support Persons With Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes
In this podcast, Eyitayo Omolara Owolabi, PhD, RN, discusses how diabetes technology is being used to support and educate patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, including addressing health care access barriers and promoting medication use, blood glucose monitoring, risk-reduction, problem-solving, healthy coping, engaging in healthy dietary practices, and physical activity. Dr Owolabi also presented on this topic at ADCES 2023 during a poster presentation titled Technology-Based Diabetes Education and Support for Persons Newly Diagnosed with T2D: A Scoping Review.
Additional Resource:
- Owolabi EO, Boakye MDS, Omololu SO, Shaibi GQ. Technology-based diabetes education and support for persons newly diagnosed with T2D: a scoping review. Talk presented at: ADCES 2023. August 4-7, 2023. Accessed August 24, 2023. https://www.adcesmeeting.org/2023/ADCES23/
TRANSCRIPTION:
Jessica Bard: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another installment of Podcast 360, your go-to resource for medical education and clinical updates. I'm your moderator, Jessica Bard, with Consultant360, a multidisciplinary medical information network. Dr. Eyitayo Owolabi joins us today to discuss her team's poster presentation at ADCES 2023.
Eyitayo Owolabi: Hi, everyone. My name is Eyitayo. I am a nurse by profession and I'm currently a postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, at the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
Jessica Bard: Please provide us with some background on your poster presentation from ADCES 2023, technology-based diabetes education, and support for persons newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Eyitayo Owolabi: Yeah. We all know that diabetes is an important public health issue globally and in the United States, and as of right now, recent estimates show that up to 37 million US population live with diabetes, and a large proportion of them have type 2 diabetes. And on top of that, 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed every year.
When people are newly diagnosed with diabetes, and even for older diabetes cases, they are expected to engage in seven key self-management behaviors, and that includes medication use, blood-glucose monitoring, risk reduction, problem-solving, healthy coping, engaging in healthy dietary practices, and physical activity, and those expectations can be very daunting and challenging, especially for people who are newly diagnosed, and therefore, it is expected or recommended that they engage in a special kind of service, which is called diabetes self-management education and support, which provides them with the skills and the education they need to be able to engage in these seven key self-care behaviors.
However, evidence has shown that people do not engage in this service, especially when they are newly diagnosed, and this could be due to different reasons, ranging from individual factors to healthcare system factors to providers not being referred to, and even the availability of such services. However, the most important barrier, or the most obvious barrier, is the access barrier.
People are unable to go for these services, especially those of low-income groups, and those of underserved populations, and therefore, we think that technology could be an adjunct or an alternative way to reach such people. It could be an alternative way to increase access to self-management education and support services, and therefore, the purpose of the study or the background to the study is for us to see how technology has been used to provide education and support for people who are newly diagnosed. So that's just the background to the study.
Jessica Bard: Absolutely. You touched on this a bit, but what was really the purpose of the research, and what is the clinical importance of this study?
Eyitayo Owolabi: Technology could be a way to provide education and support and to address access barriers. So we wanted to see the current state of evidence on the use of technology to educate and support people who are newly diagnosed with diabetes. So the purpose is to see how technology is being used, what kinds of technology are being used, what is the impact so far, and what are the gaps so far, so we can build on new studies or learn from what we find in the literature. And this could be useful for practice in terms of the lessons learned. If we see what has been done in other settings or how tech is being used to enhance diabetes education and management, we can adapt it for our home practices or for our home settings. So that is the purpose, and that is how it could be useful for clinical practice.
Jessica Bard:
And what were the results and conclusions from your team's research?
Eyitayo Owolabi: We found that even though most times there are a lot of technology-based interventions already, those that are tailored to those newly diagnosed are still very scant. Most interventions are still putting together the old diabetes cases and the new diabetes cases, whereas research has shown that the needs at diagnosis could differ from those that are already living with a condition for so long.
So we found that technology could be a potential avenue to educate and support people who are newly diagnosed, and there are different platforms that are currently being used, including the use of SMSs, mobile apps, video-conferencing, websites, and even continuous glucose monitoring. However, we found, from the evidence we gathered so far from this review, that the studies or the use of tech for newly diagnosed is still very limited.
One, the studies do not adopt a rigorous approach in terms of using randomized controlled trials, which is the highest level of evidence, and also, some of them have very small sample sizes so it is difficult to know how generalizable those studies are, and also for external validity. Most importantly, we found that there are very few studies in the United States focusing on the use of technology to provide education and support for people who are newly diagnosed with diabetes, and this is an opportunity for us as researchers and clinicians to come in and use this avenue to provide education and support for people who are newly diagnosed.
Jessica Bard: What would you say personally motivated you to study technology-based diabetes education and support?
Eyitayo Owolabi: For me, I think it's just the ease of use, the convenience, the accessibility that comes with tech because I personally am interested in those that are living in underserved communities, the rural population, and those of low-income. They have a lot of competing demands, and most of them even have transportation barriers and several things that keep them from coming for an in-person appointment. So I was very interested in the technology because we could use that to fill in those gaps and still offer them the service even if they're unable to come in person. Of course, we cannot rule out the importance of that one-on-one interaction, but rather than them not getting anything, the tech could be an effective way to reach such a population.
Jessica Bard: You mentioned in our conversation some gaps and opportunities. What would you say is next for research on this topic?
Eyitayo Owolabi: I think the next thing for us as researchers first, for me personally, I think it's high time we developed interventions using technology and that are tailored to this specific population. There are a lot of interventions out there, like I mentioned earlier, but for people who are newly diagnosed, their needs might differ. Some studies already show that their needs at diagnosis differ. Some of them also have a lot of emotional distress at diagnosis, which inhibits them from assimilating a lot of information that we provide.
So we could use tech to be that bridge in the gap, to first of all support them while they're waiting to see their diabetes educator, and even in between their visits, reminding them of the goals they've set, reminding them of their next appointment, tech can be used a lot.
Personally, I'm currently working with a federally qualified healthcare center, and we are trying to develop an intervention using technology to support diabetes self-management education, and to see the impact of that on engagement. We want to see how that is going to impact people coming in for their appointments and even engaging in these different self-care behaviors that we want them to engage in and overall their health outcomes.
So I personally am taking up the research to apply for a grant to do that with the federally qualified healthcare center here in Phoenix, and hopefully expand it to more federally qualified healthcare centers when we see the impact of the technology-enhanced diabetes self-management, education, and support for people newly diagnosed with diabetes.
Jessica Bard: Is there anything else that you'd like to add to our conversation today?
Eyitayo Owolabi:
I just want to say to us as individuals, we all have people living with diabetes in and around us. They need help, especially when they are newly diagnosed. They need all the support needed and we should go in with that consciousness. Diabetes is not a killer disease if we manage it appropriately. If we get the necessary support we need, if we engage in self-management behavior and we follow up all the recommendations from our providers, we can manage it and we can prevent the devastating complications that are associated with diabetes.
Jessica Bard: Well, thank you so much for speaking with me today, and thank you for all of your research on this topic.
For more diabetes technology content, visit the resource center.