Mobile phone text messaging and Telephone follow-up in type 2 diabetic patients for 3 months: a comparative study

BACKGROUND: To investigate and to compare the effectiveness of a nurse short message service (SMS) by cellular phone and telephone follow-up by nurse on Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in people with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Semi experimental study consisted of 77 patients with type 2 diabetes that randomly assigned to two groups: telephone follow-up (n = 39) and short message service (n = 38). Telephone interventions were applied by researcher for 3 months. SMS group that received message daily for 12 weeks. Data gathering instrument include data sheet to record HbA1c and questionnaire that consisted of demographic characteristics. Data gathering was performed at two points: initial the study and after 12 weeks. Data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics methods with SPSS version 11.5. RESULTS: Demographic variables were compared and all of them were homogenous. Results of this study showed that both interventions had significant mean changes in HbA1c; for the telephone group (p = 0.001), with a mean change of −0.93% and for the SMS group (p = 0.001), with a mean change of −1.01%. CONCLUSION: Finding of this research showed that intervention using SMS via cellular phone and nurse-led-telephone follow up improved HbA1c for three months in type 2 diabetic patients and it can consider as alternative methods for diabetes control.