Factors associated with diabetes self-care behaviors among people with type 2 diabetes in Hlaing Thar Yar, Yangon

Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is an important public health problem in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. This cross-sectional survey study aims to assess the level of diabetes self-care behaviors (DSCB) and factors associated with it. The 218 samples of type 2 diabetic patients reside in and registered at the diabetic care unit of an outpatient clinic in Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon, Myanmar were randomly selected for study. Data were collected from May to June 2020, using a structured questionnaire and records from a medical book. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. The overall diabetes self-care behaviors among 218 patients were not high with 48.2% having good self-care behaviors while the mean score was 4.53 with a standard deviation of 0.873. Among four sub-categories of diabetes self-care behaviors, medication behavior showed the highest mean score of practice (6.75 ± 0.875), followed by diet (4.61 ± 1.174), exercise (3.75 ± 1.870), and foot care behaviors (2.94 ± 1.755) respectively. Bivariate analysis revealed that the factors of levels of knowledge on diabetes mellitus, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy were significantly associated with the DSCB (p-value <0.05), while other factors were not. The results further revealed that the patients who had a higher level of knowledge (moderate-high), perceived benefits (moderate-high), and self-efficacy (high) also had a good DSCB. IMPLICATION OF THESIS The findings provide beneficial information on the need for diabetes patient education integrated into the diabetes care service of the health care setting. Improvement of DSCB requires a patient education program that relatively highlights the patients' knowledge and beliefs related to DSCB. However, a future study needs to be broadly explored in different settings.