Lifestyle, Diet, Self-care, and Diabetes Fatalism of Diabetic Patients with and without Diabetic Foot

Abstract

This study was to determine diabetes fatalism of diabetic patients with and without diabetic foot and its association with lifestyle, diet, and self-care. Methods: The subjects were diabetic patients with (male/female 48/21) and without diabetic foot (male/female 33/26). We administered the questionnaires which were designed to determine diabetes fatalism, lifestyle, diet, and self-care. Diabetes fatalism was determined by Diabetes fatalism scale (DFS), which consisted of total 12 items in three subscales namely, emotional stress, religiou·spiritual coping, and perceived selfefficacy. Results: The patients with diabetic foot had undesirable diets more frequently (1.37 and 0.91 days/week respectively) and their desirable diets (2.74 and 3.61 days/week respectively) and foot care (4.61 and 5.53 days/week respectively) were less frequent than those without diabetic foot (p < 0.05). An item analysis of the 12 DFS items revealed a Chronbach`` α of 0.614 and 0.869, respectively in diabetic patients with and without diabetic foot. Perceived self-efficacy related DFS of subjects without diabetic foot was positively associated with smoking (r = 0.350, p < 0.01), undesirable diet (r = 0.295, p < 0.05), and drinking (r = 0.257, p < 0.05), while its negative association with exercise (r = -0.224, p < 0.088) and foot care (r = -0.247, p < 0.059) did not reach to statistical significance. Conclusions: This work was the first study reporting the potential usefulness of DFS, especially perceived self-efficacy related subscale as a predictor of lifestyle, diet and self-care on the Korean diabetic patients, at least those without severe diabetic foot to screen those who should be the first target for diabetes education. Korean J Community Nutr 19(3): 241~249, 2014