Diabetes teaching based on theory helped blood sugar over time and confidence, not weight.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   Across 20 studies in 11 countries, 5,802 adults with type 2 diabetes took part. Each study had 75 to 1,570 people, and men made up 20% to 77% of each.

2. 02

   What they did

   Groups got teaching about diabetes based on health theories, often in several forms. The other groups got routine diabetes care. How long the teaching ran and how it was given varied a lot between studies.

3. 03

   What happened

   Long-term blood sugar was 0.38 percentage points lower in these groups than with routine care, across 16 studies. People in these groups knew more about diabetes and felt more confident managing it. Results varied a lot, weight did not change clearly, and the paper could not draw conclusions about quality of life.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Teaching based on health theories made people more confident than routine care did, though results varied.

   Pooled analysis of 7 studies · vs people given routine diabetes care · they rated themselves · ⚠ results look too good to be true; the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source