Assessing the relationship between present bias and diabetes self-care behavior

An understanding of the psychological factors that influence diabetes self-care is a necessary complement to biomedical and technological treatment advances. However, there are few accessible self-report measures for one important factor: present bias. Present biased individuals focus more on immediate rewards than long-term consequences, which can be especially costly for people with diabetes (PwD). The present study modified existing measures to examine the relationship between present bias/domain-specific present bias (DSPB) and present bias awareness. The online survey, administered to N = 268 individuals (PwD n = 171, PwoD n = 97), included a measure of diabetes self-care for PwD. Higher present bias was consistently associated with worse diabetes self-care, especially for DSPB, supporting the utility of domain-specific measures. Higher present bias was also related to greater awareness of one's bias, but these variables never predicted the perceived ability to curb behavioral impulses.