Self-management practices of Chinese Americans with type 2 diabetes.
The purpose of this study was to examine the level of diabetes self-management and its association with demographic and diabetes-related characteristics in Chinese Americans with type 2 diabetes. A questionnaire that measured diabetes self-management and diabetes-related characteristics was administered to a sample of 211 Chinese Americans with type 2 diabetes living in America. The results indicated that the participants were likely to take medications but less likely to carry out diet, physical activity, self-monitoring of blood glucose, and foot care behaviors. Associations between diabetes self-management and demographic and diabetes-related characteristics were observed. For example, individuals who had less education and were employed were less likely to engage in diabetes self-management than those with higher education and who were retired, while individuals who had a longer duration of diabetes and used insulin as a treatment more frequently carried out self-monitoring than those who had a shorter duration of diabetes and used oral hypoglycemic agents. These findings indicate that the self-management practices among the participants are suboptimal. Research on developing culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions to promote diabetes self-management for Chinese Americans is warranted.
Xu
Yin
Y
College of Nursing, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0038, USA. yin.xu@uc.edu
Pan
Wei
W
Liu
Hong
H
D000368:Aged; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007328:Insulin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009752:Nutritional Status; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012648:Self Care; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D007328:Insulin