Educational attainment moderates the associations of diabetes education with health outcomes

Diabetes education is a critical element of care for people with diabetes. However, the associations between diabetes education and self-care or health outcomes have not been clearly demonstrated at a national level. The aims of this study were to examine the associations of attendance of diabetes education classes with health behaviours and glycaemic control, and to understand whether these associations were moderated by level of educational attainment. Data were analysed for 456 adults from the 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V, collected from January 2010 to December 2012. No significant differences were observed between patients who had attended diabetes education classes and those who had never attended for factors such as smoking, drinking, exercise, nutrition therapy or glycaemic control. There was a significant interaction effect between receiving diabetes education and level of educational attainment on obtaining optimal glycaemic control. Attending diabetes education was positively associated with optimal glycaemic control among patients with more than a high school education but was negatively associated with it among those with less than middle school education. Diabetes education programmes need to be tailored to the needs and cognitive capacities of the target population.