Internet Diabetes Self-Management

Diabetes is a growing health problem causing personal suffering, comorbid conditions, premature death, and high costs to the individual, the health care system and society. Many of these problems can be prevented or delayed by controlling the disease. This in turn requires daily self-management by patients. The CDC has recognized the importance of self-management by setting a 2010 objective of having 60% of diabetics receive diabetes education. Unfortunately, many people cannot receive such education because it is not available or they do not wish to or cannot participate in small group or one on one education. The Internet may offer a viable alternative. We will evaluate an Internet based small group Diabetes Self-Management Program. This program will be adapted from the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program Online, already developed and currently being evaluated by the investigators. Participants with type 2 diabetes will be randomized to participate in the Internet Program or serve as controls continuing with usual care. Treatment subjects will participate in a structured 6 week interactive web-based online class with 20-24 other participants and 2 trained peer moderators. Data will be collected online at baseline, 6 months and 1 year. Outcome measures include health related quality of life (fatigue, physical discomfort, the symptoms of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, activity limitations, health distress, and self-rated health), metabolic control (hemoglobin A1c), health care utilization (decreases in outpatient visits to physicians, increases in the percentage of participants having received an eye examination in the past year, increases in the number of times a health professional has examined participants' feet, and decreases in emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and hospital days), health behaviors (aerobic exercise, communication with physicians, diet, glucose self-monitoring, and self-examination of the feet), and self-efficacy to manage diabetes. If successful, this project will result in a new and effective means of reaching the CDC objective and more importantly in improving the quality of life and health status of people with diabetes while reducing health care utilization and thus costs.