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. 2022 Sep 26;17(9):e0271680.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271680. eCollection 2022.

Self-care practice and its associated factors among diabetic patients attending public hospitals in Gurage zone southwest, Ethiopia

Mamo Solomon Emire  1 , Bitew Tefera Zewudie  1 , Tadesse Tsehay Tarekegn  1 , Fisha Alebel GebreEyesus  1 , Baye Tsegaye Amlak  1 , Shegaw Tesfa Mengist  1 , Tamene Fetene Terefe  1 , Agerie Aynalem Mewahegn  1
Affiliations

Self-care practice and its associated factors among diabetic patients attending public hospitals in Gurage zone southwest, Ethiopia

Mamo Solomon Emire et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires lifelong medical treatment and lifestyle modifications. Even though patients often neglect their own needs, self-care is an important factor in preventing and delaying complications related to diabetes. There are limited studies about self-care practice, and most of the studies conducted in Ethiopia focused on some parts of the recommended self-care practice. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the self-care practice and associated factors among diabetic patients in Gurage zone, south Ethiopia.

Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 6 to March 29, 2021. A systematic sampling method was employed to select 420 study participants. The data were collected using a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire. All variables with P < 0.25 in the bi-variable logistic regression analysis were entered into multivariable logistic regression analysis. The statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05.

Results: A total of 384 diabetes patients participated with a response rate of 91.4%. This study showed that more than half (60.4%) of the study participants had poor self-care practices. Being female (AOR: 2.40; 95% CI:1.31-4.40), rural residence (AOR:7.16;95% CI: 3.31-15.46), duration of diabetes treatment 5-10 years (AOR: 0.03; 95% CI: 0.1-0.11), duration of diabetes treatment ≥ 10 years (AOR:0.8; 95% CI: 0.03-0.21), haven't social support (AOR: 0.10; 95% CI: 0.05-0.23), haven't got health education (AOR: 0.17,95%CI 0.09-0.32) were factors significantly associated with self-care practice.

Conclusions: Despite, the importance of diabetes self-care practice for the management of diabetes and preventing its complications, a high number of diabetes patients had poor self-care practices. Female, rural residence, duration of diabetes mellitus, lack of social support, and not get of health education were significantly associated with poor self-care practice. Therefore, health care providers should give attention to diabetic patients with the aforementioned factors that affect diabetic patients' self-care practices.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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There is no funding for this research. All costs of the data collection and analysis were covered by the authors.