the effect of self-care intervention program on daily living activities among patients with diabetes mellitus

Background & aim: the most important goal of providing care for patients with diabetes mellitus (dm) is to increase the level of activity and hence prevent the progression of the disease. dm is a chronic disease with no definitive treatment, however it can be controlled with proper self-care. methods & materials: this was a pre-test and post-test semi-experimental study without a control group. the statistical sample included 70 patients with dm who were gradually selected from among members of sabzevar diabetes association, iran, in a random manner. the patients were under self-care training program for 3 sessions of 2 hours. data were collected using the self-care diabetes activity questionnaire and barthel activities of daily living (adl) index and were analyzed using the analysis of covariance (ancova) in spss. results: findings showed that the mean daily activities of patients were significantly different before and after self-care program, indicating the positive effect of self-care training program on daily activities of patients. conclusion: the present study showed that self-care education program significantly and positively affected the daily activities of patients. therefore, such training is recommended in order to improve the health status and reduce the progression of dm.