Journal of Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences

Background and Aim: Diabetes is a disease with long cardiovascular, renal, eye and neural complications. Management of the disease requires a certain degree of self-regulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the predicting factors related to self-care behaviors among type 2 diabetic patients based on Health Belief Model(HBM). 

Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 390 diabetic patients referred to Hamadan Diabetes Research Center who were recruited with a simple sampling method. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire including demographic characteristics, self-care behaviors and HBM construct. Data was analyzed by SPSS-19 using coefficient correlation, T-Test, One-way ANOVA, liner regression.

Results: According to the results, Health model explained 29.6% of the variance in frequency of self-care behaviors. Perceived self-efficacy, perceived severity, perceived barrier and perceived susceptibility were the best significant predictors (P <0.05). Significant differences in average score of self-regulation behaviors in related to education level and family history in last care were seen (P <0.05).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that applying Health Belief Model would be an efficient tool for predicting self-care behaviors among diabetic patients.