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Appl Clin Inform 2022; 13(01): 263-269
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1743239
Research Article

Telehealth Education via WeChat Improves the Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Type-1 Diabetes Mellitus

Mei-Xia Huang
1   Department of Pediatrics, Quanzhou First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China
,
Mei-Chun Wang
1   Department of Pediatrics, Quanzhou First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China
,
Bi-Yu Wu
1   Department of Pediatrics, Quanzhou First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China
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Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of telehealth education and care guidance via WeChat (Tencent Ltd., Shenzhen, China; a popular smartphone-based social media application) on improving the quality of life of parents of children with type-1 diabetes mellitus.

Methods A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted in our hospital from March 2019 to September 2020 to compare the quality of life of parents of children with type-1 diabetes mellitus in the intervention group and the control group.

Results Six months after discharge, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) scores of parents in the intervention group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Compared with the SAS and SDS scores at discharge time, those scores of parents at 6 months after discharge time in intervention group were significantly lower (p < 0.05), while those scores of parents at 6 months after discharge time in control was similar (p > 0.05). Six months after discharge, the scores of the physiological field, psychological field, social relationship field, and environmental field in the intervention group were significantly higher than those of the control group according to the result of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale (WHOQOL-BREF; p < 0.05).

Conclusion Using WeChat to provide telehealth education and home care guidance to the parents of children with type-1 diabetes mellitus can effectively relieve the anxiety and depression of the parents and improve their quality of life.

Keywords

telehealth education - home care - type-1 diabetes mellitus - quality of life

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

The project was deemed not human subjects research and received exempt approval by the ethics committee of our hospital.


Authors' Contributions

M.-X.H and B.-Y.W. designed the study, collected the clinical data, performed the statistical analysis, drafted the manuscript, and revised the article. M.-C.W. participated in the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.


Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

The present study was approved by the ethics committee of our hospital and adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Additionally, all the parents of patients signed the consent form before participating in the study.


Data Availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.




Publication History

Received: 20 September 2021

Accepted: 04 January 2022

Article published online:
02 March 2022

© 2022. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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