Self-Management Status and COVID-19 Phobia of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes1

Background: Self-management knowledge and skills, which are important for ensuring glycemic control, can be affected by many events as well as factors such as education and age. Understanding the effect of phobia on self-management behaviours experienced by diabetic patients who are at risk in the Covid-19 pandemic is important for diabetes management. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the COVID-19 Phobia of patients with type 2 diabetes compared to healthy individuals and to examine their self-management status during the COVID19pandemic. Methods: The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between Jun-Aug 2020 with a total of 197 subjects consisting of patients with type 2 diabetes and healthy volunteers. Patient information form, Diabetes Self-Management Scale and COVID-19 Phobia Scale were used to collect data. In the analysis of the data, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare two groups of the variables with non-normal distribution, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relations between the variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the factors affecting the level of COVID-19 Phobia. Results: In the inter-group comparison of patients with diabetes and healthy individuals forCOVID-19 Phobia and its subscales, the patients with diabetes were found have statistically significantly higher mean scores from the COVID-19 PhobiaScale (p=.000), and its Somatic (p= .000) and Social (p= .024) subscales compared to healthy individuals. The multiple regression analysis demonstrated a positive moderate correlation between the COVID-19 Phobia and Diabetes Self-Management levels of patients with diabetes (r= .509, p= .000). Conclusions: Patients with diabetes had a higher level of COVID-19 Phobia than healthy individuals, and they were more afraid of social and somatic symptoms.