title: Diabetes self-care behaviours and clinical outcomes among Taiwanese patients with type 2 diabetes.
abstract: We examined the influences of patients' background characteristics on the frequency of performing five diabetes self-care behaviours that 185 Taiwanese outpatients reported. All patients had type 2 diabetes diagnosed for more than a year and attended an outpatient clinic at a large university hospital where they had received at least one dietitian-led individual nutrition education session and one nurse-led diabetes education session during the course of their care. Seventy nine percent of the patients regularly (defined as responses often or always on the questionnaire) took their medications and over half followed recommended meal plans and exercised, but fewer performed foot care (38%) or checked their blood glucose levels (20%) regularly. The associations between patients' demographics and disease-related characteristics and their performance of self-care behaviours were assessed with logistic regression. Although checking blood glucose levels and performing diabetes foot care were unrelated to any clinical outcome examined, patients who took their diabetes medications had lower hemoglobin A1c levels and fewer chronic complications than those who did not. Furthermore, patients who followed a diabetes meal plan also had lower hemoglobin A1c levels, and those who exercised regularly had healthier body mass indices (BMI) than those who did not.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dietetics, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.|The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Chung-Mei
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.affiliation: The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Email: dwyerj1@od.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Johanna T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Dwyer
authors.affiliation: The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Jacques
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Lee-Ming
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.affiliation: The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.affiliation: Section on Behavioural and Mental Health Research, Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weinger
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000628:therapy*; D004032:Diet / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose