Addressing Intention Behavior Gap: Role of Risk and Protective Factors Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Present study was conducted to find out the role of risk and protective factors among patients with type 2 diabetes in the perspective of intention behavior gap. A sample of N=280 patients of type 2 diabetes n=168 male and n=112 female from the age range of 30 to 70 years were selected from Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, CMH Attock, CMH Quetta and District hospital of Rawalpindi. A correlational study design was adopted to find out role of risk and protective factors. For this purpose seven scales including Generalized Self efficacy Scale (Jerusalem & Schwarzer,1992), Beliefs About Medicines Questionnaire-Specific (Robert Horne, Weinman, & Hankins, 1999), Social Support Questionnaire (Sarason, Sarason, Shearin, & Pierce, 1987), Problem Areas in Diabetes (Polonsky, Welch, & Jacobson, 1997), WHO Quality of Life (Power, 2003), Self Care Inventory (La Greca et al., 2004), and Three Factor Eating Questionnaire,(Karlsson, Persson, Sjostrom, & Sullivan, 2000) were administered on patients in order to assess the variables. Findings of the study revealed a significant role of risk and protective factors in determining line of direction for intention behavior gap. Moreover prediction analysis showed that diabetes related emotional distress and eating problems were significant predictors of adherence. The moderation analysis showed that social support and self efficacy significantly moderated the relationship between intention to adherence and actual adherence while self efficacy significantly moderated the relationship between diabetes related problems and emergency precautions component of Adherence. Path analysis revealed that diabetes related intention to adherence predicts diabetes related emotional distress which in turn predicts actual adherence. Path analysis also showed that with increase in intention to adhere, eating problems also increased and negatively affected quality of life. Present study is helpful in explaining the gap between intention and adherence. Study is valuable in understanding the role of emotional distress and eating behaviors between intention to adherence and actual adherence. Furthermore findings have implications in diabetes management and adherence.