Abstract

 Introduction: Self treatment in diabetes mellitus might have serious consequences. This study examined self treatment behaviors in patients with diabetes mellitus, in Kashan city. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, patients aged over 18 years, with at least 6 months history of diabetes were asked to participate. A 25 item questionnaire with the 4 likert scale was used for recording data. The content validity of the questionnaire was approved and the reliability of the questionnaire was 0.85. The Chi square, T student and multiple regressions were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 400 patients participated in the study. Mean age of participants was 54.9±12.9 years 68.2% percent were female 4.2% had high self treatment score, while 65.8% had medium and 30% had low self treatment scores. Self treatment had no significant relationship with age, duration of disease, the place of living, kind of treatment, insurance, kind of diabetes or the inpatient outpatient status. Female gender, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and education had significant relationship with self treatment. Conclusion: There was a medium tendency for self treatment in patients. It seems that education focusing on treatment modalities might improve the effectiveness of self treatment in diabetes.