Associations of Illness Perception, Resignation Coping, and Social Support With Self-Regulatory Fatigue in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The study measured variables at one time, so it cannot show whether illness perception, coping, or social support caused self-regulatory fatigue. Participants were recruited from one tertiary hospital in China and were mostly middle-aged or older, insured, less educated, and had longer-standing diabetes with more comorbidities, so it may not apply to younger patients, primary care, self-paying patients, or early disease. All main variables were self-reported questionnaires at one time point, so shared response bias could remain. The avoidance coping subscale had only marginally acceptable internal consistency. Subgroup analyses were exploratory and some strata had limited sample sizes.

The work was funded by Guangdong provincial education and student innovation grants, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that changing illness perception, resignation coping, or social support will reduce self-regulatory fatigue. The study is a single-time survey of associations, so it cannot show cause or effect.