Experimental Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Experimental Study - Essay Example Initially, participant clinics, instead of individual participants, were recruited based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) willingness to participate in the study; (2) the number of patients; and (3) similarity of clinical routines. During this stage, there were a total of 179 patients in all the clinics being considered. The following exclusion criteria were adopted in the selection of individual participants for both groups: (1) duration of diabetes of less than 6 months; (2) mental retardation; (3) lack of fluency in the Dutch language. Only eight patients were excluded, but 80 patients refused to participate. After the baseline data have been obtained, 2 clinics were allocated for monitoring intervention and 2 clinics were allocated to control group. Informed consent was administered among patients willing to participate in the research study. The initial sample size is 46 patients for the intervention group and 45 patients for the control group. Data collection at baseline was not discussed in detail in this study, but in the related study with the same set of authors (De wit, et al., 2007).   All patients and their parents were administered a booklet containing questions regarding demographic information and questions to assess their physical and psychosocial well-being which were to be answered at home and returned by mail or submitted to the clinic during one of their routine appointments. Most recent glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c)  and treatment regimen were recorded form the patients’ charts. Physical and psychosocial well-being  of the patients was measured using the 87-item child report version of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-CF87), while their parents completed the CHQ-PF50 equivalent to the CHQ-CF87. Depression, as part of the psychosocial well-being of the patients was assessed using the 20-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Scale for Depression (CES-D)  for both patients and their