Relationship Between Self-Care Behavior and Cognitive Function in Hospitalized Adult Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between diabetes self-care behavior and cognitive function of hospitalized young and middle-aged Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, young and middle-aged T2DM patients (age range, 35-65 years) were recruited at 4 tertiary hospitals between July 2016 and January 2017. Data pertaining to self-care behavior and cognitive function were collected using two questionnaires (the Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities [SDSCA] and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA], respectively). Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to assess the correlation between cognitive function and self-care activities. Results: A total of 140 patients with diabetes were enrolled (mean age, 53.79 +/- 7.96 years). The mean duration of T2DM was 10.83 +/- 6.76 years. Regarding SDSCA performance, the mean scores for foot care and blood glucose monitoring were 2.20 +/- 2.57 and 1.98 +/- 2.45, respectively, which were the worst; scores for exercise (4.01 +/- 2.58) and diet (3.16 +/- 1.89) were better, while scores for medication administration (5.26 +/- 2.79) were the best. The prevalence of cognitive impairment was 37.9% (53 patients). After variables adjustment, delayed recall showed a significant correlation with blood sugar monitoring behavior (B =0.224, P=0.019); visual space and executive function (B=0.255, P=0.009) and abstraction (B=-0.337, P=0.001) showed a correlation with foot care behavior. Conclusion: Cognitive ability affects the self-care behavior of patients with T2DM. Assessment of cognitive function may help inform patient education interventions to improve the self-care behavior of these patients.