FACTORS RELATING TO HEALTH CARE BEHAVIOR AMONG DIABETES MELLITUS PEOPLE

Abstract

This research was a correlation study targeting to determine the factors relating to health care behavior among diabetes mellitus people. Subjects were 80 diabetes mellitus persons aged 18 and over receiving medical treatment in Surin Hospital that was chosen by random sampling. Data were collected by perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and barriers assessment and a demographic questionnaire. The reliability of questionnaires was 0.8 by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Percentage, mean, standard deviation and correlation were used for data analysis.

The results indicated that most of the sample were female (63.8%), aged between 61-70 years (41.2%), educated primary school (71.2%) and work as a farmer (37.5%). Most of the sample had 126 mg/dl of blood sugar (70%). The finding showed that health perception had a high level (mean=3.06, SD=0.32) and health care behavior had a moderate level (mean= 2.19, S.D=0.36). It was also found that health perception could be correlated with health care behavior (r =.338, P<.01). When considering each dimension of health perception, it was found that perceived barriers could be correlated to health care behavior (r=.543, p<.01). However, the perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and perceived benefits could not be correlated to health care behavior.

The recommendations from this study suggest that nurses should concern about the health perception of the diabetes mellitus people regard to develop proper intervention programs in order to promote the health care behavior of persons with diabetes mellitus.