Sample Characteristics
In this randomized controlled study, the results of the participants' demographic characteristics revealed that the ages mean was 60.9 years of the control group and 66.3 years of the research group. More than half of the participants were male in both groups (control group: 63.9%, research group: 75%). 38.9% of the control group participants and 33.3% of the research group participants had a bachelor's degree or higher. All of the patients in both groups reported non-adherence to the diet regimen and were non-compliant to physical activity. Also, 30.6% of the control group participants and 38.9% of the research group participants were current smokers. The mean body mass index (BMI) (Kg/m2) was 39.44 among the control group participants and 37.59 among the research group participants. Also, the mean monthly family income in the control group was JD 385.3 and among the research group was JD 338.5. None of the aforementioned demographic characteristics was found to be significantly different between the two groups, indicating an effective random assignment of group members (Table 1).
Pre-education Evaluation
The results of the pre-educational evaluation of the entire sample (N = 72) and the pain levels of the patients in a pre-educational evaluation, revealed that the mean score of the participants was 6.68 out of 10. The overall self-efficacy score was 1.60 out of 5, while the scores for self-efficacy questions were 1.39, 1.57, 1.51, 1.73, 1.50, 1.74, 2.04 and 1.71 respectively, where a lower score indicates more pain. The overall QoL score was 2.12 out of 4, while the mobility domain score was 1.92, self-care domain score was 2.22, activity domain score was 2.72, discomfort domain score was 2.92 and depression domain score was 1.31, where a lower score indicates poorer QoL. Finally, the best health imagined score was 61.11 out of 100, where a lower score indicates poorer imagined health status (Table 2).
Post-education Evaluation
As shown in Table 3, a dependent-sample t-test was conducted to assess the improvements in the overall NRS score, QoL scores and self-efficacy scores among the study group members (N=36). The results revealed that the study group members have shown a statistically significant improvement in their NRS scores (t-test = 5.694, p = 0.02), QoL overall scores (t-test = 176.242, p = 0.000) and self-efficacy overall score (t-test = 386.545, p = 0.000). Furthermore, statistically significant improvements in every subdomain (mobility, self-care, activity, discomfort and depression) of the QoL instrument and in every question (Q1 through Q8) of the self-efficacy instrument were observed.
In order to assess the impact of educational intervention on self-efficacy score, a two-step multiple linear regression model (Table 4) was conducted on the whole sample (N=72), where self-efficacy score was entered as the dependent variable and age, gender, income and type of treatment were entered in the first step as independent factors. The results of the first step of the multiple linear regression model showed that the combination of age, gender, income and type of treatment were unable to significantly explain variance in self-efficacy score (Step 1 ANOVA F (df) = 0.253 (4), p = 0.906) and the percentage of explained variance of step 1 of the model was very small (Step 1 R2 = 0.034). However, after adding the educational intervention in the second step of the multiple linear regression, the model became statistically significant (Step 2 ANOVA F (df) = 16.448 (5), p = 0.000) and the percentage of explained variance in self-efficacy score noticeably increased (Step 2 R2 = 0.746). The statistically significant improvement in the multiple linear regression model’s percentages explained variance (R2) indicates that the implementation of the educational intervention significantly improves self-efficacy scores among adult diabetic patients with DPNP.
Similarly, to assess the impact of educational intervention on QoL score, a two-step multiple linear regression model (Table 5) was conducted on the whole sample (N=72), where QoL score was entered as the dependent variable and age, gender, income and type of treatment were entered in the first step as independent factors. The results of the first step of the multiple linear regression model showed that the combination of age, gender, income and type of treatment were unable to significantly explain variance in QoL score (Step 1 ANOVA F (df) = 1.056 (4), p = 0.396) and the percentage of explained variance of step 1 of the model was small (Step 1 R2 = 0.127). However, after adding the educational intervention in the second step of the multiple linear regression, the model became statistically significant (Step 2 ANOVA F (df) = 19.656 (5), p = 0.000) and the percentage of explained variance in QoL score noticeably increased (Step 2 R2 = 0.778). The statistically significant improvement in the multiple linear regression model’s percentages explained variance (R2) indicates that the implementation of the educational intervention significantly improves QoL score among adult diabetic patients with DPNP.
In order to test the mutual correlation between outcome variables, Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients between pain score, self-efficacy score and QoL score were conducted both in the pre-educational and post-educational evaluation. In pre-educational evaluation, none of the three outcomes was found to have a statistically significant correlation with the others. Whereas in the post-educational evaluation, the correlation was found statistically significant between self-efficacy score and QoL score (Spearman’s rho = -0.759, p = 0.000), but pain score’s correlation with self-efficacy score and QoL score was not statistically significant (Table 6).
Finally, results showed that the satisfaction score mean of the research group participants was 4.33 (±0.67) at the end of the implementation, indicating a high level of satisfaction upon the completion of the educational program intervention (Table 7).