Effectiveness of theory-based diabetes self-care training interventions; a systematic review

Permanent compliance of self-care behaviors is a challenging issue in managing chronic diseases like diabetes. The evidence supports theory-based intervention in promoting self-care behaviors. However, no systematic review was done to monitor these interventions and compare more effective constructs. This study was conducted to investigate the studies using self-care theories and introducing the most effective theories.

This is a systematic review study during which some scientific databases including Scopus, Elsevier, Google scholar and PubMed were searched by using some key words like self-care or self-management, diabetes, theory or model. English articles from the start of 2013 up to the end of November 2020 were monitored.

20 articles were selected and studied based on eight theories which they used. These theories were: Social support theory, Health Belief Model, Heath Belief Model and Empowerment Theory, Empowerment Theory, Self-efficacy Theory, precede-proceed model, Self-regulation Theory, behavioral theory and Social Cognitive Theory.

Four theories appeared to be more effective for the target behavior of present research: Social Support Theory and the combination of Empowerment Theory and Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory and Self Efficacy Theory. Taken together, the findings of this systematic review suggest that interventions that go beyond individual determinants (such as changing knowledge and attitudes) to determinants of upper cognitive, motor, and social levels (such as the development of skills and competencies) they have led to raised self-care outcomes.