Self-care practices and its associated factors among adult diabetes mellitus patients in public hospitals of Sidama region, Southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: poor adherence to diabetes self-care practices can result in adverse health outcomes. Thus, it is important to adapt self-care behaviors to reduce and prevent complications from diabetes mellitus. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the level of diabetes self-care practices and associated factors among adults with diabetes in Ethiopia.

Methods: a health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April 2021 in the Sidama region public hospitals. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select 437 diabetic patients. The data were entered using Epi data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 25. A binary logistic regression analysis was performed, and variables with a p-value <0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: in this study, a large number of diabetes patients had inadequate self-care practices. Therefore, it is important to strengthen and establish support systems, such as collaborating with healthcare providers, enlisting the support of family members, and providing health education to improve self-care practices.

Conclusion: this study found that 48.9% of participants had a good level of self-care practice. College graduates and above [AOR: 4.4, 95% CI (1.87, 10.4)], those with strong social support [AOR: 4.6, 95% CI (2.3,10.5)], attendees of health education [AOR: 2.33, 95% CI (1.38,4.6)], those who were on oral hypoglycemic drug [AOR: 0.45, 95% CI (0.24, 0.83)], those who perceived the benefits of self-care [AOR: 0.46, 95% CI (0.25,0.84)], and those who perceived the severity of complications [AOR: 0.56, 95% CI (0.29, 0.77)] were predictors of diabetes self-care practices.