Community Based Management of Diabetes in Nepal

Overview

Type 2 diabetes is the largest growing concern across the globe, and this is particularly apparent in developing countries, including Nepal. Despite the growing burden and chronic nature of diabetes, prevention and control of this disease is far from adequate setting in Nepal. Moreover, there is lack of evidence on effectiveness and affordability of a population approach on reducing blood glucose level among diabetes persons. The main aim of this study is to determine the effect of Female Community Health Volunteers' (FCHVs)-led family-based health education and screening on blood sugar level in adults at community level in Nepal. This is a community-based cluster randomized controlled trial involving family based health education through FCHVs in Nepal. People ≥25 years of age listed in the Community-Based Management of Hypertension (COBIN) study and who were diabetics are eligible for eligible for participation in the study. FCHVs will conduct family based health education and fasting blood glucose measurements in the treatment arm vs not any interventions in the control arm. Independent assessors will conduct the baseline and end line assessment of the intervention. Intention to treat analysis and per protocol analysis will be used in analysis to detect significant differences between treatment and control group participants at baseline and follow up. For individual outcomes, proportions will be compared using Chi-square test and continuous measures will be compared using t-tests. Random effect mixed regression analysis will be adjusted for age and sex. Since randomisation will be at the cluster level in the study, a random-effect model will be used to account for clustering effect. Effectiveness of the intervention will be tested by analysis of covariance, which will allow us to adjust for baseline differences between groups. It is anticipated that the study can give valuable information regarding effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of an innovative way to improve diabetes management. Assessing the FCHVs' ability to address diabetes may contribute to develop a policy that can be scaled-up to a national level.