Barriers and Facilitators that Affect Self-Care Practices among Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Pediatric Nursing Faculty of Nursing, Menoufia University, Egypt

2 Assistant Professor of Family and Community Health Nursing Menoufia University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is a more common disease in children. Self-care is
critical for disease management and lowering the risk of diabetes-related complications. Design: crosssectional
study was used. Sample: A purposive sample of 193children was included. Instruments:
Part I: Socio-demographic characteristics of children; Part II: Diabetes Self-Care Ability Questionnaire;
Part III: Barriers that hinder self-care; Part IV: Perception of studied children about potential facilitators
to self-care: Results: The highest barriers which hinder self-care practices were poor adherence to
medications, difficulty in following recommended dietary plans and lack of knowledge about the health
condition, additionally, anxious about the health condition as actually barriers that hinder self-care. The
top most facilitators as emotional support and allow clinic follow-up at the school, motivate the students
to adequate self-care and training program about disease as ways to facilitate self-care. Conclusion: More
than half of studied children had unsatisfactory total self-care, while more than one third of them had
satisfactory total self-care. Also, there was high negative correlation between total barriers and total selfcare
practices. Recommendations: Design implications for technologies to support collaborative care by
improving children’s transition to independent illness management. Supplementing therapeutic education
with strategies designed to raise levels of motivation, discussion of beliefs about the disease

Keywords