ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a specialized addiction support group model might enhance treatment adherence among diabetic women. Charlotte Kasl's Sixteen Step Empowerment Model was chosen for the study.
The 17 volunteers in the study were primarily Caucasian women living in a university town located in a frontier Rocky Mountain state. Their ages ranged from 19 to 81 years. Both Type I and Type II diabetic women were included in the study. The Diabetic Self-Efficacy Scale (DSES) was the instrument used in the study.
The results of this study indicate that ten weekly sessions of attendance in an addictions-specific support group focused on diabetes mellitus yielded a significant increase in DSES scores (t = 1.85, p = .05, alpha = .1). Eighty-eight percent of the intervention group participants reported that they had improved their treatment adherence behaviors.