This study was to evaluate the effects of a short term comprehensive life style modification program on glycemic metabolism, lipid metabolism and body composition in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

A nonequivalent control group with a pre post test was designed. Data collection was done from October 2003 to June, 2004 at a hospital. Glycemic metabolism was measured by a.c., p.c. and HbA1c, and lipid metabolism was measured by cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Body Composition was measured by body weight, body mass index, waist, measurement waist per hip ratio, body fat, muscle weight and abdominal fat tissue(intra abdominal distance). The Experimental group, which was composed of 29 participants, was educated based on a life style modification protocol at a weekly meeting for 12 weeks and carried out exercise, diet along individual parameters and self monitoring, while 24 participants in the control group received only diet education.

1.The experimental group showed a significant lower a.c.(t=2.11, p=.04) and HbA₁c(t=2.65, p=.01) compared to those of the control group. 2. The experimental group showed a significant lower LDL than the results of the control group(t=2.42, p=.02). 3. The experimental group showed a significant lower weight(t=3.09, p=.00), BMI(t=3.01, p=.00), body fat(t=2.94, p=.01) and abdominal fat tissue(t=3.05, p=.01) than those of the control group.

The results provided evidence for the effectiveness of a short term comprehensive life style modification program composed of exercise, diet, support, self efficacy elevation and self monitoring in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Nursing intervention studies often suffer from a selection bias introduced by failure of random assignment. Evaluation with selection bias could under or over-estimate any intervention's effects. PS matching (PSM) can reduce a selection bias through matching similar Propensity Scores (PS). PS is defined as the conditional probability of being treated given the individual's covariates and it can be reused to balance the covariates of two groups.

This study was done to assess the significance of PSM as an alternative evaluation method of nursing interventions.

An intervention study for patients with some baseline individual characteristic differences between two groups was used for this demonstration. The result of a t-test with PSM was compared with a t-test without matching.

The level of HbA1c at 12 months after baseline was different between the two groups in terms of matching or not.

This study demonstrated the effects of a quasi-random assignment. Evaluation using PSM can reduce a selection bias impact that affects the result of the nursing intervention. Analyzing nursing research more objectively to reduce selection bias using PSM is needed.