Difficulties in daily life and the association with self‐care ability in adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Japan: A cross‐sectional study

AIM: To identify the unique contents of difficulties experienced in daily life among adult type 1 diabetes mellitus patients and to determine how basic characteristics and diabetic‐related self‐care agency are associated with difficulties in daily life. METHODS: This study used two surveys: “Difficulties in Daily Life,” which was a questionnaire developed for this survey and “Instrument of Diabetes Self‐Care Agency.” These two measures were then used with demographic information for cross‐sectional analysis. RESULT: The final sample included 321 type 1 diabetes mellitus patients. Difficulties in daily life were composed of four factors: “Difficulties in diseases disclosure,” “Difficulties accommodating diabetes into daily life,” “Difficulties in employment or continuing education” and “Lack of knowledge of diabetes.” The instrument of Diabetes Self‐Care Agency was found to be associated with all four factors of difficulties in daily life. In addition, sex and diabetes duration were shown to be important predictors.