Attitudes, Beliefs, and Knowledge of Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management Among Middle-Aged African Americans

Type 2 diabetes has more than doubled in the past decade among African Americans. Patients and health care providers are concerned about preventing debilitating complications from this disease. The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of African Americans toward diabetes, risk factors, and self-management. The health belief model guided the study. Five research questions examined Type 2 diabetes-related attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge on diabetes risk factors and self-management. The study used a quantitative design to collect self-reported survey data on 120 African Americans ages 40 to 65 years. ANOVA test results indicated significant differences between diabetes knowledge, education, and family income with a positive interaction between education and family income, and significant differences between perceptions of health beliefs about diabetes self-management with gender and age. However, there were no statistical differences between diabetes attitudes and diabetes knowledge or gender. Pearson product moment correlations were used to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between health beliefs related to diabetes self-management and age. Older African Americans with Type 2 diabetes reported less positive beliefs about susceptibility to diabetes and negative complications. No significant relationships were found between benefits, barriers, and age. The social change implications include providing information to community health workers to educate individuals about diabetes self-management and benefits of making positive lifestyle changes. At the societal level, these findings urge for continued efforts to address diabetes health disparities and all diseases that disproportionately affect African Americans.