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AADE developed tool to gauge behavior change

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AADE Annual Meeting and Exhibition

LAS VEGAS — The American Association of Diabetes Educators has recently developed the Behavior Score Dashboard — a uniform system designed to determine whether patients are making positive behavioral changes to improve management of their diabetes.

A multidisciplinary work group developed the Behavior Score Dashboard with the goal of helping diabetes educators engage their patients in goal setting and assess their progress over time. The tool includes a questionnaire that documents patient-reported actions regarding the AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors:

• Healthy eating;
• Being active;
• Monitoring blood glucose, blood pressure, urine ketones and weight;
• Taking medication;
• Problem-solving;
• Reducing risks; and
• Healthy coping.

In the questionnaire, patients are polled about their current behaviors, how well they understand those behaviors and their level of confidence in attaining successful outcomes with a specific behavior. The instrument also accounts for variations in the goals and plans of individual patients and diabetes educators.

Several medical centers tested the Behavior Score Dashboard between 2009 and 2011, including Emory University in Atlanta, Western Montana Clinic in Missoula and Baylor Health Care System’s Diabetes Health and Wellness Institute in Dallas. Eventually, the instrument will be integrated as a self-assessment form in the AADE7 System and will also be available as a free, stand-alone tool for download.

“Until the development of this tool, specific metrics for measuring diabetes-related behavior change had not been defined, and it was up to the discretion and experience of each diabetes educator to determine the level of progress that the patient had achieved,” AADE president Donna Tomky, MSN, RN, C-NP, CDE, FAADE, said in a press release. “This new tool will help all diabetes educators be able to more effectively set realistic goals with their patients and uniformly measure success.”

For more information:

• Price M. T19. Presented at: the American Association of Diabetes Educators Annual Meeting & Exhibition; Aug. 3-6, 2011; Las Vegas.

Disclosures: The researchers and Ms. Tomky report no relevant financial disclosures.

The AADE has developed a tool to help educators within the realm of behavior goal setting. We know today that diabetes is so much more than medication. It’s about behaviors and behavior change; how to move people into that realm of behavior change; and how we get them to set realistic goals. This is an automated tool that is being piloted by the AADE and is close to marketing. It was a great experience to see how this tool can help the patient understand the areas that they need to work on and focus on those areas in which they need help. We need to watch the future and to look at this tool as an enabler for that patient-diabetes educator interaction and as a way to help [patients] in the area of goal setting.

– Donna Rice, MBA, RN, CDE
Endocrine Today Editorial Board member

Disclosure: Ms. Rice reports no relevant financial disclosures.

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