In this day and age of evidence-based practice, we seek to provide interventions that we know will make a significant difference in the lives of our patients. For those of us who specialize in the care of people with diabetes, e.g. endocrinologists and diabetes educators, diabetes self-management education/training (DSME/T) has long been considered an essential intervention, a cornerstone of diabetes care. The government’s Healthy People 2010 objective that 60% of persons with diabetes should receive formal diabetes education supports this logic.1However, for many healthcare professionals outside of the specialty, this belief in the efficacy of DSME/T appears to be less solid, as evidenced by the poor referral rates for education. This disconnect is illustrated by the following findings. Although Medicare covers DSME/T as a benefit for patients with diabetes, only 1% of Medicare beneficiaries received this service in 2004 and 2005.2The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) d ta indicate that only 54.3% of people who responded to a survey had ever attended some type of diabetes self-management class.3A 2007 Roper US Diabetes Patient Market Study found that only 26% of nearly 17 million diagnosed diabetes patients in the US had visited a diabetes educator within the past year.4Anecdotal reports from diabetes educators support the notion that with the current type 2 diabetes epidemic facing the US, education programs should be over-run with referrals for DSME/T. This, however, is far from the case for most programs. Most diabetes educators are sorely underutilized, and the rate of recognized diabetes education program closures is staggering, at three per week in the US.5
A preliminary study on diabetes self-management education and glycemic control among patients with diabetes mellitus