Sample Size and Sampling Method Sampling

133 The Involvement of Lay Educators In Diabetic Control Of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Design of educational module for lay diabetic educators Training and assessment given to 16 lay diabetic educators. Baseline Data Collection Knowledge score, daily calorie intake, physical activity, weight, HbA1c, body mass index Control Group Hospital Sungai Siput n=50 Intervention Group Padang Rengas Health Clinic n=50 Usual Care Implementation of intervention: Patients meet lay educators for at least one 2 hour session for a period of 3 months Post Intervention Data Collection after 3 months Comparison of the effectiveness of the intervention Knowledge score, daily calorie intake, weight, physical activity, HbA1c, body mass index Post-intervention survey Review the opinions of both lay educators and patients in the intervention group, regarding the program. Figure 2. Flow chart of study design 134 The Involvement of Lay Educators In Diabetic Control Of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Table 2. Definitions and scale of measurement of studied variables. Conceptual definition of variables Operational definition of variables Scale of Measurement HbA1c Measurement of glycosylated haemoglobin levels in the blood. Weight Weight was taken using a calibrated Seca balance scale. Kg Height Height was measured using a calibrated Seca balance scale. m BMI Body Mass Index was calculated based on he following formula: BMI = Wt kg Ht 2 m 2 Kgm 2 Physical Activity Physical activity was calculated based on the amount of time spent on each activity on an average week as well as the intensity of each activity sedentary, moderate and vigorous. METS-min week Daily Calorie Intake Daily calorie intake was measured according to the total calorie intake based on a 24 hour diet recall. kcal Knowledge Score The patient’s knowledge was assessed based on a questionnaire which covered the following aspects: diabetic general knowledge, diabetic complications and medication. Table 1. Criteria to determine levels of physical activity. Level Criteria High 7 or more days of any combination of walking, moderate, or vigorous intensity activities achieving a minimum of at least 3,000 MET- minutes per week Moderate 5 or more days of any combination of walking, moderate or vigorous intensity activities achieving a minimum of at least 600 MET-minutes per week Low Physical activities that amounts to less than 600 MET-minutes per week 135 The Involvement of Lay Educators In Diabetic Control Of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Sample Size The sample size was calculated using the Epicalc 2000. An assumption was made that 20 of the patient population has good diabetic knowledge and we aimed to increase this figure to 45. The sample size was also selected based on an 80 power at a significance level of 0.05. Based on these factors, the calculated sample size was 53 patients in each group. After considering an estimated 10 drop out, the total sample size was set as 60 patients in each group. However, due to the time constraints of the study and unavoidable patient factors, the sample size was reduced to 50 patients per centre.

3.3 Variables

Variables that were used in this study are shown in Table 1.

3.4 Data Collection Techniques

Pre- and post-data collection were carried out by a group of trained paramedics using a set of questionnaires and checklists, over a period of 2 months each. Refer to Appendix C, D, E and F

3.5 Data Analysis

SPSS version 11.0 and Epicalc 2000 were used to analyze the results of the study.

3.6 Ethical Considerations

All data were kept confidential. However, the results of the study were relayed to the respective hospital or health clinic and will be published if relevant.

4.0 RESULTS

The results of the assessment given to the lay educators before and after training are shown in Table 3. The results showed improvements in the assessment scores before and after training were given. Table 3. Results of assessment for lay educators before and after training. Assessment Score Pre-Training Post-Training p-value Mean 77.88 84.75 0.41 Median 77.00 87.00 Std. Dev. 10.89 6.19 Minimum 54 72 Maximum 94 94 136 The Involvement of Lay Educators In Diabetic Control Of Type 2 Diabetic Patients Table 4. Comparison of socio-demographic data between intervention and control group Variables Baseline