Diabetes Self-awareness and Self-care Practices among Indonesian Diabetics: A Cross-Sectional Study

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31674/mjn.2026.v18i01.007

Abstract

Background: Self-awareness plays an important role in successful diabetes self-care practices. However, some Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients in Indonesia reported low self-awareness, which results in poor glycemic control and accelerates the occurrence of DM complications, which in turn leads to an increased mortality rate due to DM complications. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the levels of diabetes self-awareness and diabetes self-care practices as well as their correlation among Indonesian diabetics. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design. The samples involved 134 patients with type 2 DM from the community health center in South Jakarta, Indonesia, selected using a convenience sampling technique. The diabetes self-awareness and the summary of diabetes self-care practices questionnaires were used for data collection. The t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 134 patients completed the face-to-face survey. The mean score of diabetes self-awareness was 11.03 (SD=2.74), and the diabetes self-care practices were 78.60 (SD=12.55) in total. The result of diabetes self-care practices dimensions was 34.61(SD=8.01) for DM diet, 11.74 (SD=3.12) for physical activity, 5.53 (SD=1.74) for blood glucose monitoring, 5.48 (SD=1.79) for medication, and 21.25 (SD=6.56) for foot care. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that DM duration and DSA have a statistically significant correlation on diabetes self-care practices, with coefficient β= -0.372 (p < 0.001) and 0.400 (p    < 0.001), respectively. Conclusion: The study found a significant correlated between duration of diabetes, diabetes self-awareness, and diabetes self-care practices in Indonesian diabetics. These findings suggest that DM patients are experiencing quite good self-awareness and self-care practices, especially in DM diet, followed by foot care, physical activity, medication, and blood glucose monitoring.

Keywords:

Diabetes, Glycemic Control, Self-Awareness, Self-Care Practices

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Published

11-08-2026

How to Cite

Lubis, R. ., & Hisni, D. (2026). Diabetes Self-awareness and Self-care Practices among Indonesian Diabetics: A Cross-Sectional Study. The Malaysian Journal of Nursing (MJN), 18(1), 68-78. https://doi.org/10.31674/mjn.2026.v18i01.007

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