Factors Related to Type 2 Diabetes Self-Care

Diabetes mellitus (DM), as a common metabolic disorder, is a manageable disease by self-care and blood sugar control.

This study was designed to investigate the factors related to diabetes self-care and control measures.

It is an analytical cross-sectional study conducted on a convenience sample of 310 type 2 DM patients referring to the centers of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Self-care behavior data were collected using the self-care scale of Toobert and Glasgow from January to April 2017. Data were analyzed using SPSS and the significance level was set at 5%.

In this study, 310 patients with a mean age of 52.11 ± 8.20 were investigated (men: n = 91; 29.4%). Significant relationships were observed between self-care and education level (P = 0.020) and job (P = 0.005). Also, a significant inverse relationship was observed between diabetes control and physical activity, weight management, and self-care (P < 0.05).

The results showed that the education level and job could increase self-care, especially in weight management and physical activity domains; therefore, the improvement of these factors would result in better control of diabetes. In terms of job, retired people had more self-care, which could be due to their education level and having enough time for these actions.