Diabetes Interactive Education Program (DIEP)

Description:

DIEP is a Dutch multi-media educational site for people with type 2 diabetes. It includes eight chapters with information relating to: background information, hyperglycemia, diabetes and lifestyle, treatment and management, hypoglycaemia, blood glucose monitoring, living with diabetes, complications. The information is available as spoken language and as text, and includes images, videos and real patient experiences. Each chapter also has a workbook with activities to encourage self-management and provides an opportunity to note questions to discuss with a healthcare professional.

Service URL:

http://www.diep.info

Agency Responsible:

Maastricht University and University Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Details

Format:

Website.

Intervention Type:

Educational (primarily educational material or psychoeducation).

Course Length:

Long (more than 5 modules). Eight chapters, plus additional tools

Support Option:

No support. Workbook activities are designed to help prepare you for your consultations with a health professional

Target Audience

Primary Category:

Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes

Target Audience:

Adult.

Language:

Dutch.

Access

Fee:

Free.

Access:

Open: No registration required.

Contact Details:

suggesties@diep.info

Research evidence

Research Trials:

1

Research RCTs:

1

Outcome Summary:

The effectiveness of the DIEP site has been evaluated in one randomised controlled study. Participants with type-2 diabetes were assigned to either an experimental group who had access to the site for 2 weeks or a wait-list control group (both with and without pre-test assessments). The experimental group showed a significant improvement in their diabetes-related knowledge following the intervention, compared with a pre-test assessment, where as the control group showed no change. Interestingly, improvements in knowledge were not found to be related to the total time spent on the site. Furthermore, participants evaluated the site positively - indicating satisfaction with the content, design and user friendliness. Clearly, such positive findings provide evidence in favour of the site's ability to improve knowledge - but further studies need to examine the impact of such knowledge on individual's self-management practices.

Recommended rating, reviewer 1:

Recommended rating, reviewer 2:

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Research paper citations

Evidence evaluation studies:
Heinrich, E., de Nooijer, J., Schaper, N.C., Schoonus-Spit, M.H.G., Janssen, M.A.J., de Vries, N.K. (2012) Evaluation of the web-based Diabetes Interactive Education Programme (DIEP) for patients with type 2 diabetes. Patient Education and Counseling, 86: 172-178.

Additional references:
Heinrich, E., Schaper, N.C., Vries, N.K. (2009) Development of the web-based type 2 diabetes education programme: DIEP. European Diabetes Nursing, 6(2): 51-56.