The Effect of Social Support on Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: the Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy and Adherence

Ample evidence suggests that social support,self-efficacy,and adherence significantly,independently,and together affect glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (t2dm),but the pathway from social support to glycemic control remains unclear. this study hypothesized that the effect of social support on glycemic control was mediated sequentially by self-efficacy and adherence. patients with t2dm were recruited from two hospitals in guangzhou,china,from january 1 to july 31,2014,and their sociodemographic clinical data and their assessments on social support,self-efficacy,and adherence were obtained from medical records and self-completed questionnaires. of the 532 patients who participated,35% achieved glycemic control (i.e.,hba1c < 7%). social support,self-efficacy,and adherence had significant correlations with each other and with glycemic control (p<0.05). regression analyses and structural equation modeling showed that better social support was associated to better patient self-efficacy,which,in turn,was associated with better medical adherence,which was associated with improved glycemic control,and the relationship between social support and glycemic control was sequentially and completely mediated by self-efficacy and adherence. the five goodness-of-fit indices confirmed that our data fitted the hypothesized pathway model strongly. © 2017 yechang shao et al.