Endocrine Abstracts

New modalities of patient education have come up, young people are more attracted towards social media WhatsApp is very common messaging and networking tool. This study compared the effects of WhatsApp-based patient education and routine care on the disease knowledge and glycemic control of adolescents and young adults with T1D in a low-resource setting. A two-month three diabetes clinics in India. The intervention group received six WhatsApp sessions of patient education, while the control group followed their usual care. Diabetes knowledge, acute events, and glycemic control were assessed before and after the intervention. The study enrolled 42 patients, 22 in the intervention group and 20 in the control group. The median age was 19 (16-21) years for both groups. The intervention group showed a significant increase in diabetes knowledge from 12/20 to 17/20 (P< 0.01) after two months, while the control group showed a no change from 12/20 to 12/20 (P=0.33). The intervention group also had a lower mean proportion of acute complications, from 24% to 18% (P=0.52), while the control group had a higher proportion, from 8% to 36% (P=0.01). There was no difference in glycosylated hemoglobin level between the groups. The study concluded that patient education via WhatsApp improved diabetes knowledge and reduced acute events, but did not affect glycemic control, after two months.