Factors Affecting Self-Care Activities and Glycemic Control in Korean Type 2 Diabetes Patients

초록

Type 2 diabetes is one of the major chronic diseases demanding that patients perform regular self-management behaviors to obtain glycemic control and to prevent diabetes-related complications. Patients with diabetes are expected to carry out daily self-care activities such as eating healthy diet, performing regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight, avoiding tobacco use, monitoring blood glucose as well as adhering to their medication regimen.This study aimed to identify factors affecting self-care activities and their relationships with glycemic control in type 2 diabetes patients. This cross-sectional study was conducted in an outpatient clinic of diabetes center in Korea from January to July 2009, using a self-administered questionnaire survey with medical record review. The average age of total 329 participants was 56.7 ± 9.8 yrs and 48.6% of them were women. When comparing participants performing low self-care activities, patients with high self-care activities were more likely to be female, unemployed, and have higher level of education. Participants with higher self-efficacy 2.92 times more likely to perform self-care activities than lower self-efficacy group (95% CI: 1.58-5.39, p=.001) and medication adherent group 2.33 times more likely to perform self-care activities than non-adherent group (95% CI: 1.23-4.40, p=.009). High self-care activities group had a greater understanding about diabetes and their treatment regimen (p=.037) and lower FBS level (137.9 ± 45 mg/dL vs 153.4 ± 59.0 mg/dL, p<.05). However, no difference was found in HbA1C level between groups. Efforts should be concentrated on increment of self-efficacy and medication adherence among type 2 diabetes patients to obtain glycemic control effectively. Further evaluations are needed to identify the factors affecting long term diabetes related health outcomes.