Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran

2 Endocrine and Metabolism Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran

3 Department of Public Health, Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess self‑care practices and their relative
components among type 2 diabetic patients. We hypothesized that some sociodemographic
and health‑related factors, high diabetes distress, and low self‑efficacy would be associated
with poorer self‑care practices. Materials and Methods: A cross‑sectional study was conducted
for a period of 6 months in 2011. Study population was type 2 diabetic patients referring to
Omolbanin center, an outpatient diabetic center in Isfahan. One hundred forty diabetic patients
met the inclusion criteria and were all included in the study. Patients’ self‑care practices were
measured by Summary of Diabetes Self‑care Activities (SDSCA) self‑report scale that includes
items on the following aspects of the diabetes regimen: General diet, specific diet, exercise,
blood glucose testing, foot care, medications, and smoking. Diabetes distress measured
by Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) scale and Stanford diabetes self‑efficacy scale was used
for scoring this issue. Collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software version 11.5.
Results: Participants were between the ages of 37 and 75 years, with a mean of 53.23 years
(SD=7.82). Fifty‑four percent (n=76) were females; 97.1% were married (n=136), and 53.6%
had education lower than diploma (n=75). Mean of duration of diabetes was 7.1 (SD=5.63)
years. “Medications” subscale was considered as the most important one in measuring
diabetes self‑care practices (5.24 ± 2.38 days/week). Study findings revealed that general diet
had significant relation with comorbidity, type of treatment, body mass index (BMI), fasting
blood sugar (FBS), (Blood Sugar) (BS), waist circumference, diabetes distress, and self‑efficacy.
Specific diet had significant relation with comorbidity, education, triglyceride (TG), diastolic
blood pressure (DBP), and low density lipoprotein (LDL). Exercise showed significant relation
with history of diabetes, education, type of treatment, disease duration, TG, BMI, and BS. Also,
blood glucose testing showed significant relation with disease duration, self‑efficacy, TG, DBP,
BS, LDL, and high density lipoprotein (HDL). On the other hand, foot care was related to age,
diabetes distress, TG, BMI, HDL, and diabetes complications. Medications subscale as the
most important subscale of self‑care practices was relevant with age, disease duration, diabetescomplications, type of treatment, FBS, HDL, and self‑efficacy. The last subscale, smoking, had
significant relation with sex, diabetes complications, diabetes distress, self‑efficacy, TG, total
cholesterol, BS, and HDL. Conclusion: This information should be used in clinical practice
when targeting and designing educational and care plan for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Keywords

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