Effects of predisposing, reinforcing and enabling factors on self-care behaviors of the patients with diabetes mellitus in the Minoodasht city, Iran

BACKGROUND: To control diabetes mellitus (DM) it is necessary to make overall changes in the life style of the patients. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of predisposing, reinforcing and enabling factors on self-care behaviors of the patients with DM in the Minoodasht city, Iran in 2012. METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, 78 people with DM were selected by convenience sampling method. In the first stage of study, the educational program was compiled and executed on six information sessions. To present the informative content, a video projector and different lecturing methods including questions and answers, dynamic group discussion and different educational materials such as pamphlets and CDs were employed. After one month, the efficiency of the educational program was determined by using the same questioner. Data were analyzed using paired sample T-test and McNemar test. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 49 (SD: 3.27.) years old, 87.2% were married, and 19.2% were illiterate. The results showed that the enabling factors like adopting to go on a diet and the educational classes facilitated by the staff had significant effects on health care behavior of the patients. Furthermore 69.2% of the participants adopted to go on a diet before the educational sessions; that figure increased to 94.9% after the educational sessions. According to the results the mean scores for the knowledge, attitude, and behavior, reinforcement factors and enabling factors increased significantly after of the educational intervention (p- value >0.001). CONCLUSION: Predisposing, enabling and reinforcement factors affected in taking self-care behavior in the patient with DM.