ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the correlation of empowerment with illness perception among inpatients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method The convenience sampling method was used to investigate the status of empowerment and illness perception among 102 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from October 2014 to July 2015, followed by analyzing the association between the two variables. Results The total score of empowerment was (4.00 ± 0.65), and the total score of illness perception was (38.00 ± 2 . 33 ) . The empowerment was positively correlated with illness perception ( P < 0 . 001 ) . The empowerment was positively correlated with the timeline, personal control, treatment control, illness concern and illness comprehensibility, respectively (all P<0.001). Conclusions The empowerment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus is at a high level, and positively correlated with illness perception, more pronounced chronic nature, the better personal control and treatment control, a higher degree of concern about the disease and better personal understanding of the illness contributed to a higher degree of empowerment. Medical staff should evaluate the illness perception of the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus regularly in the daily work so as to improve the illness perception , improve their empowerment and promote the patients′quality of life eventually.