The Magnitude, Types, and Roles of Social Support in Diabetes Management among Diabetics’ in Southern Ethiopia: a Multilevel, Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction:Lifelong medical management is the main intervention to reduce diabetesrelated morbidities and premature deaths; yet, social support can be a vital intervention to improve diabetics' health. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude, types, and role of social support in diabetes management in southern Ethiopia. Methods: A multi-stage systematic sampling was applied to recruit 634 adult diabetics from the three-tiered healthcare system in the region. We proportionally distributed the sample size between randomly selected ten health-care facilities across the hierarchy. Pretested questionnaires and checklist; Epi-Info, and SPSS software used for data collection; entry, and analyses, respectively, and the statistical significance was determined at a P-value ≤0.05. Results: A total of 240 females and 356 males completed the study, and the overall magnitude of the social support was 50.20% [95% CI: 46.19%, 54.21%], and it was categorized into non-material and material with 44.13% [95% CI: 40.14%, 48.12%] and 34.23% [95% CI: 30.42%, 38.04%] magnitudes, respectively, and social support was left to the patients' families and friends whereas formal institutions and the public sectors were rarely offering when the patients needed it. Though sex, educational level, and health-care hierarchy were not significantly associated with the social support, residence, some occupations, presence of diabetic family members, acute medical conditions, blood glucose level, compliance to medical follow-ups, treatment adherence, and taking anti-diabetic drugs a day before the current visit to health-care facility were all statistically significantly associated with social support. Conclusion: One of every two adult diabetic patients in southern Ethiopia was receiving any social support, and social support for diabetic people reduces medical follow-ups absenteeism, improves treatment adherence, glycemic level controlling, and helps lifestyle modifications. Therefore, to keep diabetic people healthy and achieve diabetes management goals, the Ethiopian healthcare system, institutions, and concerned stakeholders should strengthen the social support for diabetic patients.

A Mixed Methods Multicenter Study on the Capabilities, Barriers, and Opportunities for Diabetes Screening and Management in the Public Health System of Southern Ethiopia

“…Trained multi-lingual 2 data collectors did the in-depth interview by using a semi-structured and pretested topic guide; the data was captured by audio recording and supplemented by note-taking, and information saturation was reached after interviewing twenty-nine participants. We collected the quantitative data from randomly selected ten hierarchically organized public health facilities (six hospitals and four health centers) by using contextualized and pretested checklists, and the study was done from March 01 to August 30, 2020.…”

“…Diabetes mellitus has become one of the twenty-first century’s health threats due to its increasing disease burden, high health care cost, loss of productivity, and premature deaths. 1 , 2 For instance, globally, as of the year 2000, there were 151 million diabetic patients and its age-adjusted comparative prevalence was 4.6%, however, within the next two decades, the disease burden dramatically increased to 537 million, and the age-adjusted comparative prevalence double to 9.8% by the year 2021. The available evidence also shows that unless robust policies and contextualized strategies are devised and effectively implemented to curve this trend, the disease burden will continue to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045.…”

“…The available evidence also shows that unless robust policies and contextualized strategies are devised and effectively implemented to curve this trend, the disease burden will continue to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. 2 , 3…”

“…7 , 15 According to the center for disease prevention and control (CDC), diabetes has become one of the tenth leading causes of death in Ethiopia. 2 , 3 , 16 Yet, the morbidity and mortality data are not well documented and estimates indicate that this burden will swiftly increase in the next few decades along with epidemiological transitions, urbanization, and unhealthy lifestyles in the country.…”

Influence of neighborhood environment and social support on physical activity among patients with diabetes mellitus

“…This indicates that patients with higher perceived social support from family, friends, community etc. engaged more in PA. Studies have reported that social support is a predictor for PA participation [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] including those living with diabetes [6,15,58,[60][61][62]. A strength of this study is the use of instrument that assesses all elements of social support in PA as previous studies on relationship between social support and PA did not take into consideration the influence of different forms of social support on patterns of PA.…”