Impact of Remote Patient Monitoring Program on Perceived Levels of Diabetes Knowledge

This study assesses the impact of a remote patient monitoring (RPM) program on diabetic patients’ perception of their diabetes knowledge. This study also examines if there is a difference in perceived levels of diabetes knowledge between patients younger than 65 years and patients who are 65 and older. The growing diabetic epidemic in the United States has created additional chronic health problems and increased health care costs. To manage a complex disease such as diabetes, knowledge of disease processes and confidence to perform the recommended health care management tasks are vital for patients. Inadequate perception of knowledge often leads to the inability to complete tasks, process new information, or make proper judgments (Ziegler & Montplaisir, 2017). The learning for this presentation includes the effect of the 90-day RPM program on all participants’ perceived levels of diabetes knowledge and the effect of the 90-day RPM program on participants who are 65 and older versus those under 65 regarding their perceived levels of diabetes knowledge. Patients who participated in a 90-day RPM program conducted between June 2019 and August 2020 completed perceived diabetes knowledge questions before and after their RPM program experience. This study is a retrospective secondary analysis of perceived diabetes knowledge responses to a subset of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Diabetes Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze continuous variables. Total and percentages were used for categorical variables. The paired t-test was used to analyze within-group differences between pre-program and post-program perceived levels of diabetes knowledge. The Mann Whitney U test was used to analyze the differences in perceived levels of diabetes knowledge between the two age populations participating in the RPM program. 37 diabetic patients (male 43.2 %, female 56.8%; 32.4% white, 67.6% African-American; 86.5%