Impact of Diabetes Prevention Education Program on Diabetes Knowledge among Adults with Prediabetes-A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Nepal

Background: Diabetes knowledge is important for diabetes prevention but has been less studied among people with prediabetes. This study aimed to assess the impact of a community-based lifestyle intervention program called Diabetes Prevention Education Program (DiPEP) on diabetes knowledge among adults with prediabetes in Nepal. Method: This study is a part of a two-arm open cluster randomized controlled trial conducted from October 2019-September 2021 in two urban areas of Nepal. Participants of the intervention arm received four 1-hour weekly education sessions, follow-up for the next 5 months, diabetes prevention education brochure, exercise calendar and daily food logbook. The control arm received an education brochure at baseline and 1-hour education session after endline data collection. The change in diabetes knowledge was assessed using Nepali validated 24-items Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ), with higher score representing better disease knowledge. Linear mixed model was used to analyze the impact of the DiPEP on diabetes knowledge score with intent-to-treat approach. Results: A total of 291 participants were recruited in the trial with mean age of 50.3±7.6 years and 67% were female. Only 290 participants had baseline DKQ (158 intervention, 132 control), out of these 258 completed the endline DKQ (139 intervention, 119 control). At baseline, mean DKQ score was 9.2 (SD 5.2) in intervention and 10.6 (SD 4.8) in control arm. After the intervention, mean change in the score between intervention and control group was 0.4 (95% CI -1.0-1.7) among those with good compliance to DiPEP. The results did not change from main analysis for those who attended ≥3 of all 4 sessions. Conclusion: Diabetes knowledge did not improve significantly after the intervention among the participants. Regular and frequent engagement of participants might help to improve diabetes knowledge among the individuals. Disclosure P.Shakya: None. A.Shrestha: None. B.M.Karmacharya: None. A.Shrestha: None. M.Bajracharya: None. B.E.Kulseng: None. E.Skovlund: None. A.Sen: None. Funding Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Public Health and Nursing (81850087)