Education of diabetic patients--a one year experience.

201 insulin-treated diabetic patients were followed upto 6 months and 1 year after a 5-day structured teaching program. There was a significant increase in overall quality of life (score 51+/-5.7 after 1 year versus 41+/-6.1 before education, P<0.01), due to reduction in depression (P<0.01) and anxiety (P<0.001) and increase in well-being (P<0.05). The metabolic control improved significantly - HbA(1c) fell from 9.1+/-1.5 to 8.0+/-1.1 and 7.8+/-1.3% after 6 months and 1 year, respectively, P<0.05. The rate of severe hypoglycaemia decreased from 0.15 to 0.06cas/pat/year after 1 year (P<0.01). The incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis decreased from 0.30 to 0.14cas/pat/year (P<0.01). These results demonstrate that structured patient education improves the quality of life of diabetic patients and their metabolic control and significantly reduces the rate of acute complications.