The correlation between fatigue and diabetes self-management in the patients with TYPE 2 diabetes

The study carried out to identify the status of fatigue and diabetes self-management, to explore the effect of socio-demographic characteristics upon fatigue and diabetes self-management and to find the correlation between fatigue and diabetes self-management among type 2 diabetic patients. The study was conducted with 332 type 2 diabetic patients at endocrinology clinics and policlinics of Balıkesir Atatürk City Hospital between June 2021 and January 2023. The data of the study were gathered using "Information Request Form", "The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Fatigue (FACIT-F)" and "Diabetes Self Management Instrument-35 (DSMI)" through face to face interview technique. In order to analyze the data; numbers, percentages, means, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test and Dunn test, One way variance analysis, Spearman's rho correlation coefficients and Linear regression analysis were used. Significance level was set at p<0.05. Average age of the type 2 diabetic participants was 64.4±12.6 and average duration of diabetes was 11.6±7.4 years. It was found that 54.8% of the individuals were male patients, 27.7% of them had a secondary school degree, 69.6% of them were married, 70.2% of them did not work, 68.4% of them used oral antidiabetic medicines, 1st degree relatives of 51.2% of the patients had diabetes story and 50.6% of them received diabetes-training from nurses before. It was found that average FACIT-F total score was 33.9±13.3 and fatigue level was low whereas average DSMI-35 total score was 103.7±14.8, self-management activities were more frequent and the highest score was identified in self-regulation subscale of DSMI-35. It was noted that age, educational status and duration of diabetes affected FACIT-F score. It was understood that those who were older, those who were illiterate and those whose diabetes duration was longer had higher level of fatigue. It was found that those who were female patients, those whose educational status was high school, university and higher education, those who were married, those who had diabetes for a long time and those who used oral antidiabetic medicines and insulin plus oral antidiabetic demonstrated high level of diabetes self-management. A positive but weak significant correlation existed between FACIT-F scale and subscales of collaboration with health professionals and other significant people and compliance with medical regimen. A positive and moderately significant correlation was found between FACIT-F scale and Diabetes Self Management Scale-35 and self-regulation, self-integration, blood glucose monitoring subscales (p<0.001). As result; it was seen that fatigue affected diabetes self-management negatively among patients with type 2 diabetes. Key words: Self-management, type 2 diabetes, fatigue.