1481-P: Evaluation of Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support Awareness and Perceived Understanding among Health Care Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Survey

Introduction and Objective: Despite the proven benefits of DSMES, its utilization remains suboptimal. We aimed to assess the awareness and perceived understanding of DSMES among the ADA members. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was disseminated to Chairs of ADA’s 16 interest groups (IG) with a one-time request to distribute it to their respective IG members. All ADA members were included; incomplete surveys were excluded. The voluntary, anonymous 6-minute survey, developed by the ADA DSMES IG Leadership Team, comprised 25 open-ended and Likert-scale items (0=strongly disagree to 4= strongly agree), assessing awareness and perceived understanding of DSMES objectives, core activities, referral criteria, general benefits, and billing processes. Results: Over the course of 3 months, 61 (75.3%) provided complete data. Participants were predominantly white and female (72%), with 68.9% providing direct patient care; 19.7% reported prior DSMES involvement. The most common degrees were MD (29.5%) and RN (27.9%). Mean DSMES awareness was 2.97± 0.76 (0-4 scale), with perceived understanding of 61±29%. Mean confidence was 2.81±0.85 and modestly correlated with perceived understanding (r=0.46, p <0.001). Conclusion: While DSMES awareness was generally high, notable discrepancies between confidence and actual understanding underscore the need for strengthened DSMES education among healthcare professionals.