The effectiveness of an education intervention on the health-related quality of life of adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

INTRODUCTION The increasing prevalence rate has made diabetes a world epidemic. Type 1 diabetes mellitus has an impact on everyday life and in general, it reduces the healthrelated quality of life (HRQoL) of adolescents. Considering diabetes and its associated effects on patients' health-related quality of life, this interventional study was performed to promote the health-related quality of life using education based on the self-care model in Kiambu County, Kenya. METHODOLOGY The study was conducted from January to August 2021 at diabetic clinics of Thika Level 5 Hospital (TL5H) and Kiambu Level 5 Hospital (KL5H). The study employed a pre-test post-test non-equivalent quasi-experimental study design. There were 96 adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) obtained by stratified random sampling technique, and assigned into experimental (48 respondents) and control group (48 respondents). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was evaluated in the first and seventh months using a Short Form health survey (SF-12) questionnaire. A paired sample T-test and an Independent T-test were used to analyze data. RESULTS Paired sample T-test statistics revealed a significant difference in increasing HRQoL (p<0.05) before and after the intervention; Independent T-test discovered a significant difference in HRQoL (p<0.05) between the intervention and control group at post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS Education intervention based on a self-care model is an effective program that can improve HRQoL. In addition, the education intervention based on the self-care model needs to be implemented continuously to prevent diabetes-related complications and improve HRQoL for diabetic patients.