Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to investigate whether the relationships between education and medication and healthy exercise adherence were the same among female and male Type 2 diabetic adult learners. The purpose included also exploring whether registered nurses would alter their approach to diabetic adult learners’ education on medication and healthy exercise adherence considering patients’ gender and education levels. The study also investigated the correlation between diabetes duration and medication and healthy exercise adherence. The research investigation employed mixed methods sequential explanatory design using qualitative data to help explain the quantitative findings. The quantitative study was based on preexisting data of 102 Type 2 diabetic adult learners collected by the researcher. The qualitative study was a phenomenological investigation based on semi-structured interviews of 10 registered nurses from Terre Haute Regional Hospital. The research investigation suggested no significant interaction between gender and education levels regarding medication and healthy exercise adherence (respectively p = .746; p = .664). In contrast, the findings in the qualitative analyses suggested that the registered nurses would change their approach to patients’ education on medication adherence based on education levels, not gender. The nurses expressed also that healthy exercise adherence among Type 2 diabetic adults was individual based, i.e., education attainment and gender had no impact on patients’ healthy exercise adherence. The quantitative analyses also suggested an inverse correlation between how long Type two diabetic adult learners have been diagnosed with the iv disease and their healthy exercise adherence. The longer patients were diabetic the less they were adherent to healthy exercise routines. The study recommended that more investigation on Type 2 diabetic adult learners would be useful to understand the impact of the interaction between gender and education attainment on medication and healthy exercise routines. The study suggested as well that future investigations should include larger sample sizes of study subjects and more representation of male Type 2 diabetic adult learners. They should as well include more representation of minority and young Type 2 diabetic populations. Moreover, this study suggested future investigations which include other groups of diabetes educators such as specialists from dietary and pharmacy professions.

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