A study on diabetes-related self-care plan and its determinants among diabetes patients in a Warangal region, Telangana, India

Abstract The prevalence of epidemiological diseases, including diabetes, has continued to increase because of the adaption of Western culture and the lack of self-care activities among patients with diabetes. Therefore, in this cross-sectional study, we aimed to assess self-care plans and determinants among diabetes outpatients in Warangal. We conducted a prospective observational study among diabetes outpatient clinic in Warangal, India over 6 months from October 2019 to March 2020. We used the expanded Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) questionnaire. A P value of less than < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Respondents (mean age, 52.3 (standard deviation (SD), 11.01) years) had an overall SDSCA score of 49.18 ± 3.57 (SD). Mean scores for the diet, physical activity, foot care, medication adherence, and blood sugar testing scales were 12.79 (SD, 1.61), 10.24 (SD, 1.77), 15.67 (SD, 1.5), 5.66 (SD, 1.17), and 4.80 (SD, 0.68), respectively. Patients' age, education, disease duration and hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) levels of <7.5% (P < 0.001)) had significantly higher mean scores for blood sugar testing, diet, physical activity, and adherence (P < 0.001). The employment status is associated with all the domains of Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (P < 0.001). Taken together, our results revealed that patients with diabetes in Warangal had poor self-care planning, highlighting the need for strengthening initiatives that generate awareness regarding diabetes and improving related self-care practices

Evaluation of adherence to pharmacological treatment

The adherence to therapy associated with the socio-demographic variables and the habits of patients with hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus were investigated in this study. The registration forms of 105 patients in the Hiperdia program in the municipality of Campina Grande-PB were used as a data collection instrument, applying the Morisky-Green test (MGT) and Batalla test (BT) to assess compliance treatment. For the MGT, there was a prevalence of non-adherent individuals (76.2%) and the type of predominant behavior was unintentional. The internal consistency of the responses obtained through the MGT presented good reliability, according to the value of 0.69 obtained by Cronbach's alpha. For the BT, there was a predominance of adherence (68.6%) and the alpha value was 0.80, showing a high reliability level. It was found that a diet lacking in salt is a strong impact variable for determining the adherence to the BT. Given the representativity of the tests, there is a need to amend the interferences that facilitate the low adherence to drug treatment. The results of this study can be used to construct strategies that will address these difficulties and optimize the adherence level and quality of life of patients.