The impact of communicating cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetics on patient risk perception, diabetes self-care, glycosylated hemoglobin, and cardiovascular risk

Aim This study aims to investigate the effect of a cardiovascular risk (CVR) communication intervention on the accuracy of CVR perception, diabetes self-care (DSC), glycosylated hemoglobin percent (HbA1c%), and CVR in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Subject and methods A randomized controlled trial was performed in T2DM patients attending the family medicine outpatient clinic in Suez Canal University Hospital, Ismailia. The intervention group ( n = 107) received a comprehensive CVR communication. Control subjects ( n = 107) received the standard usual care. The outcome measures were: accuracy of risk perception, DSC, HbA1c%, and CVR scores. Patients were investigated at baseline and 3 months after the intervention. Differences between arms were assessed using chi-square and Student's t-test, and within-group differences were assessed using the paired t-test and McNemar’s test. Results After the intervention, the accuracy rate of risk perception was significantly improved (from 44.9 % to 89.7 %) in the intervention group with excellent improvement in agreement between perceived and objective risk (kappa ± SE 83.7 ± 4.4 %, p