ABSTRACT
Diabetes is the most common disease related to metabolism disorders with long term complications. It needs lifelong specific self-care, as it causes a promotion in quality of life and decreases disease costs. The Health Belief Model [HBM] is a psychological model that attempts to explain and predict health behaviors. This is done by focusing on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals. The model has been used for studying diabetes self care behaviors. The aim of this study was determination of predictors of self-care behaviors among diabetes patients referred to Yazd diabetes research centre based on extended health belief model. This cross-sectional study carried out on 120 diabetic patients referred to Yazd diabetes research centre who were entered in the study by convenience sampling. A questionnaire was used for data collection with a private interview which included questions regarding extended health belief model constructs including perceived benefits, barriers, severity, sensitivity, threat, self-efficacy, social support, metabolic control and locus of control and some demographic variables. There was a positive significant correlation between model variable of perceived benefits, severity, sensitivity, threat, self-efficacy, social support, metabolic control and internal locus of control with self-care behaviors, and also a negative significant correlation between perceived barriers [P = 0.001], chance locus of control [P = 0.037] and self-care behaviors. The above variables explained 45.3% of variance in diabetes self-care behaviors, with self-efficacy as the strongest predictor. The results of this study approved the effectiveness of extended health belief model in predicting self-care behaviors among diabetic patients, which can therefore be used as a framework for designing and implementing educational intervention programs for control of diabetes