Schinckus L, et al. – This study strived to ascertain if emotional distress or depression moderated the link between health literacy, self–efficacy and diabetes self–care behaviors. The research culminated in the observation that the emotional distress warded off the patients from acting on their competence to conduct adequate self–management behaviors, whether associated with diabetes or not.

Methods

• The enrollment comprised of 128 people with type 2 diabetes from hospitals, through general practitioners and via a diabetes website.
• They completed a questionnaire evaluating the health literacy, self-efficacy, diabetes-related distress, depression and self-care behaviors.

Results

• Health literacy and self-efficacy prominently speculated the reported self-care behaviors, which was affirmed via multiple regression analysis.
• Additional regression analyses disclosed that distress or depression did not predict self-care behaviors directly.
• They moderated the effect of health literacy, which exhibited a weaker impact in patients experiencing distress or depression.
• Distress and depression, on the other hand, did not moderate the impact of self-efficacy on diabetes self-care behaviors.