Abstract:
This descriptive research aimed to assess perceived self-care and self-care behaviors for
preventing kidney complications in diabetic patients, and to study the relationship between self-care
perceptions and self-care behaviors for preventing kidney complications. The study group comprised
350 diabetic patients attending a diabetic clinic. An interviewing schedule was used as the research
instrument. The data was analyzed by computing descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and Pearsons
product moment correlation coefficient.
The results of the study showed that the respondents had a low level of perceived self-care for
preventing kidney complications, both of the total self-care perceptions and almost all specific aspects
except the perceived severity of chronic kidney disorders. The perceived benefits of performing
behaviors for preventing chronic kidney disorders, controlling blood sugar, blood cholesterol and blood
pressure, were found to be at a moderate level. The respondents self-care behaviors were found to be at
a good level. A significant relationship was found between perceived self-care and perceived self-care
behaviors for preventing kidney complications (p=0.002). The analysis of the relationship between the
specific aspects of perceptions and self-care behaviors to prevent kidney complications showed that
there was a significant relationship between self-care behavior and the following variables : perceived
severity of kidney disorders; perceived self-efficacy to perform self-care behavior; and perceived
benefits of performing self-care behaviors (p=0.001, 0.001, and 0.028 respectively). But no significant
relationship was found between self-care behaviors for preventing kidney complications and perceived
susceptibility for getting chronic kidney disorders and perceived obstacles to perform self-care
behaviors.
This study revealed that it is necessary to encourage diabetic patients to perceive self-care for
preventing kidney complications appropriately, and to perform self-care behaviors correctly for preventing
kidney complications.