Self-efficacy, problem solving, and social-environmental support are associated with diabetes self-management behaviors.

Objective: To evaluate associations between psychosocial and social-environmental variables and diabetes self-management, and diabetes control.

Research Design And Methods: Baseline data from a type 2 diabetes self-management randomized trial with 463 adults having elevated BMI (M = 34.8 kg/m(2)) were used to investigate relations among demographic, psychosocial, and social-environmental variables; dietary, exercise, and medication-taking behaviors; and biologic outcomes.

Results: Self-efficacy, problem solving, and social-environmental support were independently associated with diet and exercise, increasing the variance accounted for by 23 and 19%, respectively. Only diet contributed to explained variance in BMI (beta = -0.17, P = 0.0003) and self-rated health status (beta = 0.25, P < 0.0001); and only medication-taking behaviors contributed to lipid ratio (total-to-HDL) (beta = -0.20, P = 0.0001) and A1C (beta = -0.21, P < 0.0001).

Conclusions: Interventions should focus on enhancing self-efficacy, problem solving, and social-environmental support to improve self-management of diabetes.