Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Dr. Anita G. Barrett
Keywords
community oriented primary care, comparison study, Dallas County Hospital District, diabetes, diabetic health education, diabetic knowledge, diabetic patients, group education, health education, health literacy, hospital education, literacy skills, mean scores, null hypothesis, Parkland Hospital, patient education, primary care clinics, probability level, questionnaire, research hypothesis, Southeast Dallas County Clinic, statistical analysis, support groups, t-test, treatment outcomes
Abstract
The Dallas County Hospital District currently provides diabetic health education 2 classes to anyone who has been diagnosed with diabetes. The Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) clinics also provide health education classes to anyone diagnosed with diabetes. Health education is offered to all diabetic patients. Furthermore, many patients who are admitted to the hospital for the treatment of diabetes are provided more in-depth health education on the prevention of the disease. The COPC division has seven clinics that operate in the Dallas sector, and all clinics offer diabetic health education classes to Dallas County citizens who have been diagnosed with diabetes. In addition, the health education classes are offered once weekly at each site. Currently, many patients have low literacy skills and exhibit difficulty mastering the basic information provided to them on diabetes. At the hospital, health education information can be provided to the patients in the hospital room or in a support group setting. However, at the clinic sites diabetic health education is primarily provided in a group presentation format.
The purpose of this study was to compare diabetic knowledge levels of diabetic patients who receive health education at the Dallas County Hospital District (Parkland Hospital) clinic to those diabetic patients who receive health education at the Southeast Dallas County Clinic.
The research hypothesis for this study was that there is a significant difference in mean scores of diabetic patients who receive health education at Parkland Hospital as compared to those at the Southeast Clinic.
The procedures for this study involved identifying diabetic patients who had been provided health education between December 2000 and May 2001. In order to test this hypothesis, these patients were divided into two groups: patients who have received diabetic health education at the Southeast Dallas County Clinic and those who have received diabetic health education at the main clinic located in Parkland Hospital.
The questionnaire scores were obtained for each group. The t-test was used to test the null hypothesis. For the analysis, the probability level was set at .05. A t value of 3.29 was achieved. Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. There was a significant difference in mean scores of diabetic patients who receive health education at Parkland Hospital as compared to those at the Southeast Clinic. The research hypothesis was therefore accepted.