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Diabetes Prevention Education Program for Community Health Care Workers in Thailand

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Abstract

To evaluate the effects of a 4-month training program on the knowledge of CHCWs. CHCWs from 69 communities in Chiang Mai province in Thailand were assigned to the intervention group (IG, n = 35) or control group (CG, n = 34). All CHCWs were assessed for knowledge at baseline and at 4-months. The intervention group received a training program of 16 sessions of 2.5 h each within a 4-month period. A mix of classroom and E-learning approaches was used. All CHCWs were assessed for knowledge at baseline, 4-month, and follow-up at 8-month. Assessment was based on a pretested examination addressing understanding of nutritional terms and recommendations, knowledge of food sources related to diabetes prevention and diet-disease associations. Overall, the knowledge at baseline of both groups was not significantly different and all CHCWs scored lower than the 70% (mean (SD), 56.5% (6.26) for IG and 54.9% (6.98) for CG). After 4-month, CHCWs in the IG demonstrated improvement in total scores from baseline to 75.5% (6.01), P < .001 and relative to the CG 57.4% (5.59), P < .001. The follow up phase at 8-month, IG were higher in total scores than CG (71.3% (7.36) and 62.4% (6.81), P < .001). The diabetes prevention education program was effective in improving CHCWs’ health knowledge relevant to diabetes prevention. The innovative learning model has potential to expand chronic disease prevention training of CHCWs to other parts of Thailand.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the grants from the Nestlé Foundation, Switzerland. The authors acknowledge the team staff of the health care offices at San Pa Thong, San Kham Peng, Sa Ra Phe, Hang Dong, and Mae Tang districts in Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The authors particularly thank for team staff of The Office of Disease Prevention and Control 10 Chiang Mai province, Ministry of Public Health for their facilities and hospitality. The authors would like to thank Ms. Julia Verhaeghe for editing the grammatical English language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Nutrition, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, 25 Phuttamonthon 4, Salaya, Phuttamonthon, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand

    Kitti Sranacharoenpong

  2. Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Rhona M. Hanning

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  1. Kitti Sranacharoenpong
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  2. Rhona M. Hanning
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Correspondence to Kitti Sranacharoenpong.

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Sranacharoenpong, K., Hanning, R.M. Diabetes Prevention Education Program for Community Health Care Workers in Thailand. J Community Health 37, 610–618 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-011-9491-2

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