The Mediating Role of Acceptance Action and Self-Care in Diabetes Self-Stigma's Impact on Type 2 Diabetes Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

Recently, the quality of life of individuals with diabetes has been reduced, owing to self-stigma that occurs in the process of managing the disease. This process can be improved by accepting diabetes. This study aimed to verify the dual mediating effect of acceptance action and diabetes self-care on the effect of diabetes self-stigma on the quality of life of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Korea. In this study, 300 of 400 data collected to develop and evaluate health equilibrium tools for individuals with T2DM were randomly selected and analyzed. Data were collected from 1 September 2020 to 31 September 2020 using a structured online questionnaire. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation analysis were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 24.0. Additionally, the dual mediation effect was analyzed using PROCESS Macro for SPSS, version 4.1. Acceptance action (B = -0.088, 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.127 to -0.054) and diabetes self-care (B = 0.046, 95% CI, 0.022-0.072) had a mediating effect on the relationship between diabetes self-stigma and quality of life in patients with T2DM in Korea. In particular, these two variables had dual mediating effects (B = 0.017, 95% CI, 0.015-0.019). This study confirmed that diabetes self-care and quality of life can be increased by improving acceptance behavior to overcome the negative impact of self-stigma on the quality of life of patients with T2DM. Establishing a strategy to increase acceptance action as part of an intervention to reduce the negative impact of self-stigma on the quality of life of patients with T2DM is necessary.