[Enhancing self-care behavior to empower diabetes patients: the MAGIC strategy]

Good self-care behaviors can control diabetes and its complications effectively. Today, it is estimated that less than 20% of diabetes patients adhere to the self-care behavior regimens suggested by their healthcare providers. The World Health Organization advocates incorporating empowerment strategies into diabetes education to enhance patient abilities to control their disease and improve overall care efficacy. This article reviews the literature to develop the MAGIC strategy empowerment approach. MAGIC is an acronym for: Motivating patient self-awareness (M); assessing the causes of the problem (A); goal setting (G); individual self-care plan development (I) and Checking whether goals or plans have been achieved (C). The MAGIC empowerment process, involving interaction between healthcare professionals and patients, has the potential to work like "magic" to help patients implement effective self-care behavior. Guidelines and practice are necessary to shift professionals from the traditional education model to the empowerment approach. This article is a useful reference for clinical practice.