To begin with, many patients recognise the importance of consistent consultation with health care professionals including general practitioners, pharmacists and dieticians regarding any issues associated with their self-management plan. Additionally, a number of patients decide to take more insulin in response to elevating blood glucose levels, so that they do not have to make major compromises in their food selections and limiting their exercise thus minimising its interference with their quality of life. However, most patients that were interviewed, complied with the doctor’s suggestions and consistently measured their blood glucose levels at least three times a day (Colins, M et al.2009). The majority of type 2 diabetes sufferers make a deliberate attempt to increase physical activity and ultimately continuing to work towards their ideal goal and that is to maintain a healthy lifestyle, in order to ensure optimal clinical and medical outcomes. In regards to the distress and burden that many sufferers of type 2 diabetes encounter, based on a recent study, it appears that social support from a network of family and friends can be considered beneficial in increasing the efficacy of self management plans for type 2 diabetes patients (Rosalind AM et …show more content…
A recently conducted study explored whether web-based interventions provided benefits on psychological and clinical outcomes for sufferers of type 2 diabetes (Yu C et al.2014). The purpose of the website was to enhance patient’s knowledge on the health outcomes associated with type 2 diabetes, and in doing so, encouraging a greater self-efficacy. A cohort of 81 people were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing whether improvement to their self-efficacy were made following nine months of its usage (Yu,C et al.2014). Patients responses in relation to website use, benefits of the blog and frequency of use were correlated for three week intervals for a duration of nine months following its use. It was concluded that web-based intervention was not a successful method to improve patient’s self-management program, as it did not improve the patients overall self-efficacy and quality of life in managing their disease (Yu, C et al.2014). This means that more convenient forms of intervention such as phone apps and direct reminders on mobile phones may prove to be more successful in enhancing self management plans due to its minimal impacts upon a patient’s lifestyle. It should be noted that the study was not conducted on a large scale and therefore the sample size may not be considered sufficient as a representation of the population of sufferers of type 2