The Effect of Education Via Smartphone Application on the Risk Perception of Type 2 Diabetes Among Women with Gestational Diabetes

Backgrounds:The risk of catching type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is 2-7 times greater in pregnant women with gestational diabetes (GDM), compared to women with no GDM. Despite these facts, women with GDM may not perceive themselves to be at risk for future diabetes. Low risk perceptions can cause women with GDM to believe that their health condition is temporary and might ignore adherence to their treatment regimen and can be exposed to an increased risk of T2DM. This study aimed to describe the effect of smartphone-education on risk perception of T2DM in women with gestational diabetes.Material and Method :This quasi-experimental study included 90 pregnant women with gestational diabetes(n = 45 in each group) who were referred to a university hospital in Tehran, Iran. The gestational diabetes application was installed on the smartphones of members of the intervention group. The members of the control group only received routine prenatal education. The type 2 diabetes risk perception questionnaire was completed by both groups before and six weeks after the intervention. The data were analyzed with chisquared, paired-t, independent t, and Fisher exact tests, and a covariance analysis was applied using SPSS-16 software. Statistical significance was determined as a level of less than 0.05 in this study.Result:Our results shown that the risk perception significantly differed between the two groups (p<0.001), comparing the data that was collected before and six weeks after the intervention. The intervention group members had more score changes. The smartphone-based education also resulted in significantly lower average scores of the optimistic bias category among the intervention group members.Conclusion: Smartphone-based education provides a complementary or alternative solution for in-person educational and supportive interventions for increasing the risk perception of T2DM and accordingly decrease the rate of catching T2DM.Diabetes type 2; gestational diabetes; risk perception; smartphone application.