[A Study on Self-Care Behaviors and Related Factors in Diabetes Patients]

The self-care behaviors of patients with diabetes represent the most important part of diabetic healthcare. However, few studies have investigated the self-care behaviors of diabetes patients in the context of diabetes shared care networks.

The present study applied a health belief model to determine the self-care behaviors of diabetes patients and the related factors affecting those behaviors.

A cross-sectional approach and convenience sampling were employed. A questionnaire survey was completed by 165 patients with type 2 diabetes in a diabetes shared care network of a teaching hospital in Yilan County, Taiwan. The questionnaire comprised scales including knowledge, health beliefs, cues to action, self-efficacy, and self-care behavior for diabetes. The collected data were analyzed using the Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis.

The percentage of accomplishment of diabetes self-care behavior was 62.93%, with taking medication achieving the highest rate of compliance and monitoring blood sugar achieving the lowest rate of compliance. On the diabetes health belief scale, the perceived benefits of taking action scored the highest and the perceived barriers to taking action scored the lowest. Medical treatment, duration of joining the diabetes shared care network, cues to action, age, and self-efficacy were the most important factors of influence in self-care behavior, accounting for 20.2% of total variance.

Diabetes health educators should pay attention to factors that affect the self-care behaviors of patients receiving diabetes shared care. The results of the present study provide healthcare professionals with information that may be used to develop better healthcare and suggests further research on diabetes interventions.