A survey on patients' characteristics, perception of family support and diabetes self-management among type 2 diabetes patients in South-West Nigeria.
Lucia Y Ojewale, Abimbola O Oluwatosin, Adesoji A Fasanmade and 1 others
PMID 30918673WHAT IT FOUND
Patients who reported good family support had better diabetes self-management.
Longer diabetes duration and previous diabetes education were also linked to better self-management.
Key findings
01Patients with good perceived family support had a mean diabetes self-management score of 52.0, compared with 49.4 for patients with poor perceived support, on a 16-64 scale.
02Diabetes duration and previous diabetes education were associated with self-management, while age, gender, marital status, education, income, insulin use and glucometer ownership were not.
03Most patients had good self-management (61.9%) and most had good perceived family support (60%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that family support causes better self-management or that teaching family members improves outcomes. Family support was measured as perceived support, not the concrete help family members actually gave. Self-management was self-reported, so it may not match what patients actually do. The sample was relatively small and drawn from two clinics, and the survey was part of a larger study whose main results are not reported here. Patients who were not living with or accompanied by family were excluded, so it says little about patients without family involvement.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that family support causes better self-management or that educating family members will improve diabetes control. The study measured perceived support and self-management at one time, so it shows association only.