The Effectiveness of Telenursing for Diabetes Self-management Education: A Scoping Review

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease whose complications can cause a decline in quality of life and which requires long-term care. Diabetes Self Management Education (DSME) effectively helps control glycemic events and prevent DM complications. Telenursing has become a promising approach to educating patients with DM.

This scoping review aimed to summarize the effectiveness of telenursing for DSME.

The scoping review methodology guided by Arksey and O’Malley and Levac et al., and PRISMA-ScR guidelines were used. Comprehensive searches based on the concept of self-management education and technological media for education were conducted using databases, such as Cochrane, Science Direct, EBSCO, PubMed, and Portal Garuda. Articles were screened from 2013 to 2023, which were RCTs written in English or Bahasa Indonesia, including the adult population with T2DM, and whose one of the research outcomes has been diabetes self-management. Data were then extracted, synthesized, and concluded.

A total of 48,997 articles were screened at the title and abstract levels. We obtained 48,953 articles after removing the duplicates and finally acquired 1,327 articles appropriate to the criteria for full-text. We identified 12 articles and found telenursing for education by telephone or combined with other technological media, such as videos, to effectively improve diabetes self-management behavior in patients with T2DM.

Telephone calls are one of the potential methods of telenursing for diabetes self-management education. Nurses can use telenursing as an effective and efficient educational media to improve glycemic control in patients with T2DM.