Participation in the journey to life conversation map improves control of hypertension,diabetes,and hypercholesterolemia

Background: the diabetes conversation map program includes 4 board game-like education tools. we describe how the journey to life conversation map education class improves diabetes performance measures of hemoglobin a1c (hba1c),low-density lipoprotein (ldl),and blood pressure (bp). methods: retrospective case-control study in a military family medicine clinic from january 2007 to january 2010. we included 202 patients who completed ≥1 conversation map class and a comparison group of 209 patients who did not attend. results: attendees started with hba1c 8.25 (95% confidence interval [ci],7.86-8.64) and decreased to 6.96 (95% ci,6.69-7.23). patients in the comparison group started at 8.57 (95% ci,8.18-8.95) and decreased to 8.27 (95% ci,8.01-8.54) (p < .001). attendees began with ldl of 111 mg/dl (95% ci,103-119) and decreased to 94 mg/dl (95% ci,81-106). patients in the comparison group started at 89 mg/dl (95% ci,81-98) and increased to 98 mg/dl (95% ci,85-110) (p < .007). systolic bp decreased 5.4 mmhg among attendees versus 0.8 mmhg among those in the comparison group (p = .014),whereas diastolic bp was unchanged (p = .110). conclusion: the journey to life healthy interactions conversation map education class for diabetes improves diabetes performance measures. © 2015,american board of family medicine. all rights reserved.