Clinical Pediatrics

Biography

Biography: Jia Guo

Abstract

Diabetes self-management is the key to attain desired control goals. Youth with type 1 diabetes experience special self-management challenges and a great amount of stress. Little research has examined the perceived stress faced by Chinese youth with type 1 diabetes, or explored the psychosocial correlates of their self-management. The purpose of this study was to: a) to determine if self-efficacy mediates the relationship between perceived stress and diabetes self-management; and b) to explore whether perceived stress moderates the self-efficacy and diabetes self-management relationship. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, the youth with type 1 diabetes were recruited from a diabetes clinic from January 2016 to December 2016 in Central South of China. Data on demographic and clinical characteristics, perceived stress, self-efficacy, and diabetes self-management were collected. Descriptive analyses and regression analyses were generated by SPSS Version 22. Structural equation modeling was implemented with the MPlus program. Results: A total of 149 youth with a mean age of 13.9 years were investigated. There was no direct effect of perceived stress on diabetes self-management (p>0.05); however, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between perceived stress and diabetes self-management. Lower perceived stress was associated with better self-efficacy (r=-0.67; p<.01). The combination of high self-efficacy and low perceived stress shows better self-management than would be predicted from the main effects of self-efficacy and perceived stress alone. Conclusions: Decreasing perceived stress and improving self-efficacy are important strategies to achieve optimal diabetes self-management. Ways to improve youths' self-efficacy and ability to cope with stress should be the primary goal of diabetes education for Chinese youth with type 1 diabetes to improve diabetes self-management.