Analysis of the 2004-2007 literature on therapeutic patient education in diabetes: results and trends

Abstract The purpose of this study is to identify the recent characteristics and the developments of therapeutic educa tion in diabetes through an analysis of the international articles published from 2004 to 2007. Studies were selected from several databases: Medline, Embase, Eric, Cochrane central database, using the following keywords: diabetes, patient education, self management, programs. Two authors independently reviewed each study and selected the data using the same categories of analysis. Articles consistently related to patient education in diabetes (80 among 118) were included. The selected articles have been published in 43 scientific joumals. The majority of them concern TPE for adult patients with type 2 diabetes. TPE is delivered in sev- eral structures and education to groups ofpatients represents the most widespread educational strategy mostly provided by a multiprofessional team. A total of 70% of the studies show the effectiveness ofTPE based on bioclinical, educa- tional, psychosocial, economical criteria. The problem of barriers to TPE concerns Zl%o of the studies we have ana- lysed and most of the authors propose the implementation of specifically-designed TPE programs as strategy to overcome them. A large number of studies still assess the positive effects of TPE. Nowadays the problems of accessibility to TPE and the barriers to this practice have become a major issue for research.