Self-Care Practices And Psychosocial Distress For People With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Nutritional intake and modification of lifestyle are the cornerstones for management of

Type 2 diabetes. It has been recognized that, in order to achieve satisfactory metabolic

control, adoption of self-care skills by the diabetic person is crucial. The aim of this study

was to determine self-care practices and diabetes related emotional distress for people with

Type 2 diabetes mellitus in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A cross sectional survey involving

121 people with Types 2 diabetes was conducted in four diabetic clinics located in Dar es

Salaam. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out using

Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 11.5). Result of the study showed that, the

level of self-care practices in area of diet, physical exercises, medication, and blood

glucose test was not up to desired level of practice requiring following of all of the

recommendations in seven days per week without missing. Diabetic related emotion

distress for studied sample was low and comparable to levels reported in other studies

however the level was not in line with the score recommended in PAID. The

recommended PAID score for emotion is zero. For this reason, efforts are needed to

reduce the emotional stress among diabetic subjects. The main problem in self-care was

financial limitation and lack of care education. Efforts are therefore required to improve

the quality of care including self-care education, counselling and medical support.

Following the result of this study it is recommended that, the government and other

stakeholders should increase effort to lower the cost of diabetic services like diabetic tests

and medications; Given the importance of self monitoring of blood glucose to diabetes

care, government, and other stakeholders should strive to make the procedure readily

accessible and affordable for all patients who require; Further research is needed to

determine optimum self-care practices and diabetic related emotional distress levels that

can predict good glycemic control that would help researcher and programme managers to

be able to monitor the progress of diabetic care programs.