Obstacles for self-management practices among diabetes patients: A facility-based study from Coastal South India

Background The purpose of the study was to assess the obstacles faced by diabetes patients in their self-care and determine the factors associated with these obstacles. The management of diabetes mellitus (DM) extends beyond the clinician's efforts, with the responsibility of the care also being shared by the patient to achieve better treatment outcomes and prevent complications. Self-care management is the most important part of DM treatment, which includes diet, regular exercise, blood glucose monitoring, medication and foot care. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 107 type 2 DM patients aged >18 years using the Diabetes Obstacles Questionnaire-30. Patients scoring a mean response score >3 were considered to have an obstacle. We included age, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), duration of DM and blood glucose levels as factors for regression analysis and a P value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results A large majority (64.5%, n = 69) of our participants were aged above 55 years and belonged to lower socio-economic status (65.4%, n = 70). Family history of DM was present in 41% (n=44) of the participants. The median duration of DM among the participant was 10 (4 - 7) years. In our study, the participants faced obstacles for two items in the domains: Support from Friends & Family (mean score: 3.73) and Knowledge of the Disease (mean score: 3.58). A multinominal regression analysis revealed SES was predictive of participants who could not understand information from literature with a P. value of 0.002 (OR: 3.65, CI: 1.60-8.338). Conclusion The two major obstacles to self-management practices that were identified were in the domains of Support from Friends and Family, and Knowledge of the Disease. Socioeconomic status was identified to be a predictive factor associated with the participants who are not able to understand information from the literature.