Self-care Agency of Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus - Effectiveness of a Self-care Enhancing Intervention

The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing worldwide. Providing effective care to the women with GDM to improve the maternal and fetal outcome is a growing challenge for the nurses. The present study was conducted to identify the effect of a self-care enhancing intervention on the self-care agency of women with GDM. The study used a pre-test pot-test control group design. Forty women with GDM attending a tertiary hospital, selected as a sample of convenience were randomized to experimental and control group (20 each). The self-care agencies of both the group were assessed to form the baseline (88.4±8.7 in the experimental group and 89.1±13.3 in the control group). Participants in the experimental group were given self-care enhancing intervention to enhance their self-care agency while the control group received routine care. Self-care agency of both the groups was compared using independent sample t-test. It was found that the self-care agency of the experimental group (110.7±7.4) was significantly higher than that of the control group (96.4±10.2) following intervention. The mean gain in self-care agency in the experimental group (22.3) was also significantly higher than the control group (7.3). The findings of the study conclude that self-care enhancing intervention is effective in improving the self-care agency of women with GDM.