The Impact of Social Support on Self-care of Patients With Diabetes: What Is the Effect of Diabetes Type? Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Purpose This meta-analysis examined relationships between social support and self-care in type 1 (T1DM) and 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods We searched for published and unpublished studies using the following databases: PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, and Medline. MeSH search terms included "diabetes mellitus," "social support," "caregiver," "self-care," "self-management," "self-care skills," and "coping behavior." Studies reporting correlations between social support and self-care were included. Results Initially, 2 095 studies were extracted. After eliminating duplicate and irrelevant studies, 28 studies involving 5 242 patients with diabetes were included. Of these, 22 studies examined T2DM subjects. Social support was significantly associated with self-care ( k = 28, r = .28, 95% CI: .21-.34, P < .001). Among the diabetes self-care types, the strongest effect was found for glucose monitoring ( k = 6, r = .21, 95% CI: .08-.33). The relationship between social support and self-care was stronger in T2DM ( k = 22, r = .30, 95% CI: .22-.37), relative to T1DM, samples ( k = 5, r = .22, 95% CI: .02-.38). Conclusion It was concluded that the overall effect size for social support on self-care was moderate, and its strength differed by ethnic majority within the sample, type of social support measures, and publication status.

Systematic Review of Social Support on Psychological Symptoms and Self‐Management Behaviors Among Adults With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

“…Studies with significant findings regarding age consistently demonstrated that young adults experienced poorer self-management behaviors. This aligns with other research, which indicates that young adults with chronic conditions may need specialized interventions in order to improve self-management behaviors (Plevinsky, Gumidyala, & Fishman, 2015;Song, Nam, Park, Shin, & Ku, 2017;Trivedi & Keefer, 2015).…”

Novel psychosocial factor involved in diabetes self‐care in the Japanese cultural context

“…The perceived emotional support from close others was found to be a significant predictor of diabetes self-care activity for Japanese female patients, whereas for USA patients it was not 9 . These findings are in accord with other reports from Asian countries [10][11][12][13][14] . Thus, an individual's value on interdependence with others among Japanese patients might increase psychological barriers due to concerns about potential friction, and might adversely affect their choices of diabetes self-care.…”

Self‐care of patient and caregiver DyAds in multiple chronic conditions: A LongITudinal studY (SODALITY) protocol

“…In the present project, we have defined these predictors as “dyad‐related” because they will be measured in both patients and caregivers. The results of individual studies conducted on DM, COPD and HF patients have shown that self‐care is poorer when patients and caregivers are stressed (Endrighi et al., ; Kaptein et al., ; Dionne‐Odom et al., ), are depressed (Bourbeau & Bartlett, ; Dickson et al., ; Jerant, Kravitz, Moore‐Hill, & Franks, ; Katon, ), receive poor social support (Bidwell et al., ; Graven & Grant, ; Lyons et al., ; Pereira et al., ; Song, Nam, Park, Shin, & Ku, ), do not collaborate in symptom management (Buck, Kitko, & Hupcey, ; Buck, Zambroski, & Hupcey, ) and have a lower mutuality (i.e., “the positive quality of the relationship between caregiver and care receiver”) (Lum, Lo, Hooker, & Bekelman, , p. 307).…”