The effects of diabetes knowledge, self-efficacy, and depression on self-management in older patients with diabetes in the community: A cross-sectional study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to self-management of older patients with diabetes. Methods: The subjects of the study were 255 older patients with diabetes registered at the public health center in C-do O-gun. Data were analyzed with IBM SPSS ver. 24.0. Results: The self-management had significant positive correlations with diabetes knowledge (r=.29, p<.001) and self-efficacy (r=.62, p<.001), and had a significant negative correlation with depression (r=-.47, p<.001). A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to analyze the factors effecting self-management. In the Model II, subjects with religion (β=.10, p=.033), subjects of higher than middle school graduate (β=.12, p=.036), subjects with one comorbidity (β=.16, p=.034), diabetes knowledge (β=.12, p=.017), self-efficacy (β=.49, p<.001), and depression (β=-.27, p<.001) had significant effects on self-management, and the explanatory power increased to 48.7% (F=22.88, p<.001). Conclusion: To improve the self-management of older patients with diabetes, not only sufficient diabetes knowledge should be provided through systematic education, but also development of the self-management program that improves self-efficacy and includes psychological support for the prevention and mitigation of depression is required.