What are the Measures for Evaluating Diabetes Management Program?

Diabetes Management programs must collect data to document changes and assess effectiveness. A practical evaluation looks for changes over time by registering measures at the beginning of the program and relating them to measures collected following the program implementation of Diabetes Case Management in Maryland.

Diabetes programs frequently use clinical performance measures (for instance, fluctuations in body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and levels of glycosylated haemoglobin in blood) for evaluation. One needs to be careful when developing program evaluation strategies and place a better emphasis on the transitional outcome measures than measures regarding program process.

Diabetes programming can comprise of multiple focus areas. The following factors are needed to be kept in mind when crafting an evaluation to ensure the anticipated change is being assessed, in addition to recognizing potential opportunities to enhance the program:

• Affective change: Change in feelings and attitudes toward specific behaviour. Self-efficacy, beliefs regarding the influence of personal choice in diabetes control, and improved quality of life.
• Behavioural change: Adoption of new behaviours. Self-management, increased family support/awareness of self-management efforts.
• Learning change: New awareness and knowledge is acquired. Diabetes knowledge, health literacy level, skills for effective self-management, feedback to providers.
• Environmental conditions: Decreased barriers to healthier lifestyle choices. Access to care, better culture of health for community, evaluation and referral of diabetics with psychological issues that can inhibit effective self-management.
• Status change: Improved health indicators or outcomes. Average blood glucose assessment, improved HbA1C measures, changes in BMI\weight, better stamina from increased exercise.

When recognizing Diabetes Management Solutions for community diabetes programs, it is crucial to consider the program's focus, the requirements of the funders or audience, and the time frame and training available for meeting program objectives. Common measures employed in health promotion and disease prevention programs comprise of:

• Demographic data: Age, ethnicity/race, gender, educational attainment income, and mother tongue.
• Biological markers: Weight, height, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, blood pressure, skin circumference, and HbA1Cs.
• Health status: Disease, disability, injury, stress, risk factors, and apparent health status.
• Medical history: Medication use, physician's visits, and the number of hospitalizations.
• Knowledge: perceived risk, health concerns, and views on program implementation.

• Quantity of patients enrolled in the evaluation.
• Quantity of participants completing the program.
• Quantity of participants participating in screenings or risk assessment.
• Quantity of participants participating in skill activities development or health education.
• Quantity of participants that receive and comply with referrals.
• Quantity and types of educational materials produced for the program.
• Quantity of key stakeholders involved in the program.
• Quantity of people aware of program messaging and intend to take action.
• Quantity of policies developed.
• Types of program settings and activities.
• characteristics and number of staff offering the program.
• The extent to which activities are applied according to the program plan.
• Types of contributions and resources provided by stakeholder groups.
• Expenses to realize program-related events.

• Perceived health status.
• Healthy behaviors.
• Biometric markers.
• Prevalence of risk factors or disease.
• Policies.
• Knowledge and skills.
• Healthcare costs.
• Environmental conditions.