[Relationship between self-management behavior and cognitive skills in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients]

The relationship between general self-management skill (SMS) and specific SMS, and associations with self-management behavior were investigated in diabetes patients.

A total of 306 diabetes patients were asked to complete questionnaires and additional information was collected from medical records. The contents of the questionnaires covered attributes, the SMS scale developed by Takahashi, the specific SMS score (diabetes skills score), and self-management behavior, referring to items of Yasukata's and Kinoshita's scales.

1. The SMS scale correlated with the diabetes skills score, although high values were observed for the latter, and these skills influenced self-management behavior. 2. Path analysis was applied to examine association between cognitive skills and self-management behavior. The results showed direct associations between self-management behavior and the SMS scale, the diabetes skills score and the presence or absence of a job. The SMS scale, the degree of knowledge, family support, and the presence or absence of a job were indirectly associated with self-management behavior through the diabetes skills score. The standardized partial regression coefficient (beta) showed self-management behavior to be much more related to the diabetes skills score than the SMS scale.

These findings suggest that support of cognitive skills related to diabetes may be effective for improvement of the self-management behavior of diabetes patients.