The Relationship between Self-monitoring of Blood Sugar and Self-management Behaviors in Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Due to the prevalence of type 1 diabetes in children and the importance of this developmental period, self-management plays a very important role in disease management. This study was designed to determine the relationship between self-monitoring of blood sugar (SMBG) and self-management behaviors in children with type 1 diabetes.

The present study was a correlational-descriptive study which carried out in Besat’s Teaching University hospital in the city of Hamadan, 2021. Through simple random sampling, 92 children with type 1 diabetes, aged between 9 to 12 were included to the study. Subjects completed the demographic, self-monitoring and diabetes self-management questionnaires validated by Cheraghi et al. (2013). Data analysis was done by independent t-test and Pearson correlation in SPSS-20.

The average scores of self-management dimensions were obtained, including blood sugar measurement range (14.63±3.50), compliance with insulin therapy (39.39±8.49), compliance with diet (41.84±10.36) and physical activity (19.60±4.69). There was a direct and significant relationship between total self-management behavior score and self-management dimensions’ score with blood sugar self-monitoring (p<0.001).

There was a significant relationship between self-monitoring of blood sugar and self-management behaviors in children with type 1 diabetes. Therefore, it is recommended that self-monitoring of blood sugar by children with type 1 diabetes should be done more carefully and regularly so that the children with type 1 diabetes can have better self-management upon this disease.