Self-care practice and glycemic Control among type 2 diabetes patients on follow up in a developing country: a...

The main goal of managing diabetes is to achieve glycemic control. However, the glycemic level of most diabetic patients is shown to be poorly controlled mainly due to poor adherence to self-care practices. This study aims to assess the level of self-care practice and glycemic control among type 2 diabetes patients on follow up in a resource limited country.

A four-month prospective observational study was conducted among type 2 diabetes patients from February 1 to May 30, 2021. Data was collected using a data abstraction checklist and structured questionnaire. The data was entered into Epidata version 4.4.6 and analyzed with SPSS version 26. Glycemic control and its predictors were determined using binary logistic regression. P-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

A total of 138 patients were included in the study. Nearly three-fourths (74.6%) of patients had poor glycemic control and the majority of patients had poor self-care practice. 78.3%, 98.6%, 96.4%, and 55.8% of patients had poor adherence to diet, exercise, self-monitoring of blood glucose, and medications respectively. Importantly, 85(79%), 102(75%), 99(74.4%), and 65(84.4%) patients with poor adherence to diet, physical activity, self-monitoring of blood glucose, and antidiabetic medications had poor glycemic control. On multivariate logistic regression, BMI (AOR 4.1, CI:1.20-14.11, p = 0.024) and drug adherence (AOR 3.08, CI:1.22-7.08, p = 0.017) were factors associated with poor glycemic control.

A higher proportion of patients had low-level of self-care practice and poor glycemic control. This highlights the need to improve patients' awareness about the importance of self-care practice to maintain good glycemic control and prevent adverse outcomes associated with the disease.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40200-022-00995-4.