Self-Efficacy Theory as a Framework for Community Pharmacy-Based Diabetes Education Programs

Abstract

Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professional to many chronically ill patients and see patients vi,,ith diabetes up to five times more often than any other healthcare provider. Besides this high accessibility, pharmacists have a strong focus on counseling, health education, and interaction with patients, making them ideal providers of diabetes education and valuable members of a multidisciplinary diabetes care team. Health education programs in general often have been developed without a basic theoretical framework. These programs are more difficult to evaluate in terms of how behavioral change may be best accomplished. Self-efficacy theory has been used in the past to develop successful patient education programs for patients with diabetes. The purpose of this paper is to describe self-efficacy theory and its role in diabetes education, and to encourage its use as a framework for the development of community pharmacy-based diabetes education programs.