Family support, medication adherence, and glycemic control among adults with type 2 diabetes

OBJECTIVEdWe used a mixed-methods approach to explore the relationships between participants ’ perceptions of family members ’ diabetes self-care knowledge, family members ’ diabetes-specific supportive and nonsupportive behaviors, and participants ’ medication adherence and glycemic control (A1C). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSdAdults with type 2 diabetes participated in focus group sessions that discussed barriers and facilitators to diabetes management (n = 45) and/or completed surveys (n = 61) to collect demographic information, measures of diabetes medication adherence, perceptions of family members ’ diabetes self-care knowledge, and per-ceptions of family members ’ diabetes-specific supportive and nonsupportive behaviors. Most recent A1C was extracted from the medical record. RESULTSdPerceiving family members were more knowledgeable about diabetes was associ-ated with perceiving family members performed more diabetes-specific supportive behaviors, but was not associated with perceiving family members performed fewer nonsupportive behav-iors. Perceiving family members performed more nonsupportive behaviors was associated with being less adherent to one’s diabetes medication regimen, and being less adherent was associate