The Relationship Between Self-Management Behaviors and Associated Factors in Patients with Diabetic Foot Ulceration

Self-management behaviors support patient and family members' engagement in treating diabetes. Such behaviors are most effective when accompanied by knowledge, beliefs, and social facilitation. Interprofessional collaborative (IPC) teams have the ability to promote self-care behaviors and patient engagement in treating diabetes. To date, no study has specifically looked at the relationship between patient perceptions of IPC teamwork (PP-IPCT) and self-management behaviors (SM). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between SM, family support (FS), PP-IPCT, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), wound size (WS), glycemic stability (SMBG), and demographics in patients with diabetic foot ulceration (DFU).Using a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational research design, participants diagnosed with DFU completed a demographic data form and instruments to measure the associated factors. A variable summary was computed using descriptive statistics. Measures of central tendency (mode, median, and mean), and measures of dispersion (range and standard deviation) were used to initially analyze participant results of the demographic data, Patient Activation Measure (PAM), Family Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, Resolve (APGAR), Patients' Insights and Views of Teamwork (PIVOT), and Short-Form 12 version 2 (SF-12v2) survey tools. A Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the strength and direction of relationships between SM, FS, PP-IPCT, and HRQoL. The lowest group means scores occurred for role physical (RP [M = 8.59]), role emotional (RE [M = 24.22]), and general health (GH [M = 26.95]), where all the means are less than 30. The highest means were observed for mental health (MH [M = 62.97]) and bodily pain (BP [M = 50.39]). There were very weak correlations between the PIVOT, PAM, and Family APGAR scales. The PIVOT scale had one positive medium correlation with the SF-12 physical functioning (PF) scale (r = .33) and small correlations with the other SF-12 scale scores. The PAM had one positive medium correlation with the GH scale (r = .31), and small correlations with the other SF-12 scales of PF (r = .13), RP (r = .12), BP (r = -.04), vitality (VT [r = .16], social functioning (SF [r = -.01]), RE (r = .18), and MH (r = .14). The Family APGAR scores had small correlations with all the SF-12 scales such as PF (r = .11), RP (r = .06), BP (r = .03), GH (r = .23), VT (r = .02), SF (r = -.07), RE (r = .10), and MH (r = .08). The two strongest correlations among the SF-12 scales included a large positive correlation (r = .51) between RP and RE, and a medium positive correlation (r =.42) between MH and BP. Findings from this study inform the development of interventions involving IPC teamwork and FS to improve individual and population health outcomes