Investigating self-care performance of diabetic patients at a diabetes center; a single center pilot study

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases in humans that is mainly recognized by a defect in the metabolism of carbohydrates. Diabetes self-care is one of the factors for controlling the disease. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the self-care performance of diabetic patients at the diabetes center of Sabzevar in 2014. Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, which was conducted on 400 diabetic patients to determine the patients’ awareness as a raw score. The study was conducted by designing a two-part questionnaire (demographic information and performance measurement) which was completed by patients and in the case of lack of literacy by the researcher. Chi-square, t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with CI 95% were used for statistical analysis. Results: Of 400 participants, 156 were female. Around 93.7% of the individuals were under diploma. Chi-square test showed education has only the significant relationship with nutritional performance. Additionally, a significant relationship between occupation and all self-care parameters was detected. There is also a significant relationship between marriage and drug performance and self-monitoring (P<0.05). Conclusion: By implementing this study, the self-care role of diabetic patients in improving disease and reducing costs was determined and its effect on improving individual and social life was confirmed.

Keywords

• Diabetes mellitus
• Self-care performance
• Chronic diseases