A community-based cross-sectional study on self-care and its role in the management of diabetes among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is one of the most common non-communicable diseases in India. Self-care practices in diabetes are essential for the control of the disease and improvement of quality of life. The objective of this study was to assess the proportion of study subjects practicing self-care practices and to study their influence on glycemic control. Materials and Methods: This is a community-based cross-sectional study on 400 diabetic patients selected by probability proportionate to sample size to assess the self-care practices with the help of a semistructured questionnaire after obtaining institutional ethical clearance. Results: Majority of the study population were males (62.75%) and belonged to the age group of 40–60 years (60.25%). About 51% of the respondents were diabetic for less than 6 years; 24% and 16% followed a healthful eating plan and exercised regularly, respectively. About 46% were regular in taking medications and 71% checked their blood sugars regularly. Only 0.5% checked their foot and inside of their foot wear regularly. Conclusion: Self-care practices were found to be unsatisfactory in most of the domains that were studied. As these practices are essential for the prevention of complications and to provide a better quality of life, more efforts are needed to educate the people about self-care practices