329113
Diabetes Self-Management Education and Self-Care Behaviors
This study aims to examine socio-demographic and other predictors of diabetes self-management education (DSME), and to examine the relationship between optimal levels of self-monitoring behaviors and DSME engagement, using data from the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a national cross-sectional telephone survey.
Methods:
59,445 diabetics aged 18 years or older from BRFSS were used for the analysis. The outcome variable was DSME engagement, which was dichotomized as “yes” or “no.” The independent variables were self-monitoring of blood glucose and foot sores per the American Diabetes Association’s recommended frequencies. A binary logistic regression model was constructed to evaluate predictors of DSME and examine the association between optimal levels of self-care and DSME.
Results:
Age, gender, race, BMI, education, income, provider status and exercise were significantly associated with DSME (p < 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, individuals who reported never checking for foot sores were 45% (95% CI: 0.51, 0.60) less likely to have received DSME compared to those that checked for foot sores daily. Individuals who reported monitoring their blood sugar levels weekly or less often, and never monitoring their blood sugar were 37% (95% CI: 0.60, 0.67) and 63% (95% CI: 0.34, 0.40) less likely to have received DSME compared to those that checked blood sugar daily, respectively.
Conclusions:
Socio-demographic factors, provider status and exercise were predictors of DSME, and blood sugar monitoring was associated with DSME. Increasing public health interventions aimed at educating diabetics would provide a means for improving outcomes and decreasing costs.
Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and preventionPlanning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Define what diabetes self-management education is.
Identify factors that are associated with utilization of diabetes self-management education.
Keyword(s): Diabetes, Chronic Disease Management and Care
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a second-year graduate student mastering in public health epidemiology at Saint Louis University. Among my biostatistics courses was General Linear Modeling in which I completed research on Diabetes Self-Management Education and self-care diabetes habits topic. I submitted an abstract and was accepted to present at St. Louis University's Graduate Student Association research symposium in April 2015. My interests include infectious disease epidemiology, environmental and occupational health, and rural health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.