Effect of patient education through a social network in young patients with type 1 diabetes in a Sub-Saharan context

Background: Patient education is essential in management of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Objective: To evaluate the short-term impact of patient education through WhatsApp on the knowledge of the disease and glycemic control of adolescents and young adults living with T1D in a resource-limited setting. Methods: A double arm non-randomized clinical trial was carried out in two clinics for diabetes in Cameroon, over a period of 2 months. The intervention consisted in providing four sessions of patient education through WhatsApp to an intervention group compared to a control group with their classic follow-up. We evaluate their knowledge on diabetes, acute events, and glycemic control, before and after intervention. Results: We recruited 54 patients of which 25 subjects and 29 controls. Median age was 19 (17-20) and 19 (17-21) years for the intervention and control group, respectively. There was a significant improvement of knowledge on diabetes in the intervention group from 13/20 to 16/20 (P < 0.01) after 2 months, compared to a slight decrease in control group (from 11.6/20 to 11.3/20 (P = 0.33). The mean proportion of acute complications decreased from 28% to 16% (P = 0.46) in the intervention group, and increased from 7% to 34%, P = 0.01 in the control group. There was no improvement in glycosylated hemoglobin level in both groups. Conclusion: Patient education through social network helped to improve knowledge on T1D and to reduce acute complications without an improvement of glycemic control after 2 months.