Bronwen Jane Griffiths BA, Hudson Birden and Margaret Irene Rolfe
The Green Card Project is a small randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to test the effectiveness of an intervention to aid diabetes self-management carried out in a general practice setting in rural New South Wales. Participants were given a card with four key predictors of long term diabetes health and offered incentives for positive changes in these indicators. Controls received standard care. Fifty four participants and 68 controls completed the project. There was an average decline of 0.20 (se 0.15) in HbA1c for males in the intervention group compared to an average increase of 0.23 (se 0.13) in the control group. For women, the opposite occurred, with the intervention women exhibiting an average increase of 0.24 (se 0.13) and the controls an average reduction of 0.12 (se 0.127). For lipids, there was a significant reduction in both intervention and control. Both males and females in the intervention group demonstrated a significant reduction in waist circumference, whereas the control group had a non-significant increase in waist circumference. Male participants saw the program in a competitive light, while women were focused on the discount voucher. Education strategies for diabetes may benefit from research into gender specific information delivery systems. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) as ACTRN12613000414718.
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