The context of a legacy of diabetes: correlates of self-care behavior.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a means to assess recollections of a family member's diabetes self-care behavior and to assess the relationships to a participant's own self-care behavior. Assessing recollections of a family member's self-care behavior may provide insight into what patients learn from family members with diabetes.

Methods: Volunteers with diabetes were recruited from 2 centers in the metropolitan New York/New Jersey area (N = 104) to complete a new pencil-and-paper survey called the Family Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities Survey, adapted from the widely used, valid and reliable Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities Survey to assess their recollections about a family member's diabetes self-care behavior. The measure was used to examine the relationships between recollections of a family member's self-care behavior and the participant's own self-care behavior.

Results: There was a significant positive association between recollections about family members' dietary behavior with participants' own dietary behavior, indicating that more dietary adherence of the family member is associated with more dietary adherence by the individual. No significant associations were found between the other self-care behaviors (physical activity, glucose monitoring, pill and insulin adherence).

Conclusion: The relationship of recollections about the self-care of family members to individuals' own self-care provides some empirical support for the concept of multigenerational legacies of diabetes.