Dr Siti Fatimah Badlishah Sham, Prof. Dr Anis Safura Ramli, Dr Mohamad Rodi Isa, Nurzakiah Mohd Isa and David Leonard Whitford been together publish research article Q2 on “Are Malaysian Type 2 Diabetes Patients Willing To Be Trained To Speak To Their Offspring About Risk Of Diabetes And Preventive Measures?”
Offspring of type 2 diabetes patients have an absolute risk of 20-40% of developing the condition. Type 2 diabetes patients should be encouraged to speak to their offspring regarding diabetes risk and prevention strategies. The Health Belief Model conceptualises that the higher the perceived risk, the more likely an individual will modify their behaviour.
The objectives of this study were to determine the distribution of type 2 diabetes patients regarding their willingness to accept training to speak to their offspring, determine the distribution of type 2 diabetes patients regarding their willingness to accept training based on the HBM and to determine the factors associated with their willingness to accept training.
This study has shown that a majority of type 2 diabetes patients were willing to accept training to speak to their offspring to prevent diabetes. A training module should be developed to train type 2 diabetes patients to speak to their offspring as a potential means of preventing diabetes. Due to the potential of social influence within families as shown in this study, interventions should be designed with the goals to enhance knowledge, attitude and skills of type 2 diabetes patients to become family health educators and model healthy behaviours.
It should also facilitate intra-familial communication about risk-reducing behaviours. There is a need for further research to explore the views of perceived diabetes risk in the offspring of type 2 diabetes patients and their willingness to engage in preventive lifestyle behaviour. Future research should also include a pragmatic randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the training module.
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