Purpose: Because the individual differences influenced the execution of diabetes self-management, the present study explored the contribution of personality traits associated with the depressive mood, the self-management and the glycemic control among adults with diabetes.
Method: We measured the Big Five personality traits and self-care behaviors of 440 outpatients (mean age = 61.6 years) with type 2 diabetes in Taiwan. After 2-4 months (mean interval= 88.6 days) personality traits scale was administered, the depressive mood, self-care behaviors and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured.
Results: The path analysis (Figure 1) revealed that conscientiousness predicted HbA1c via the mediation of taking medication and emotional stability predicted HbA1c via healthy eating. The extroverted patients were prone to do exercise regularly, but patients with lower emotional stability did exercise less through the contribution of depressive mood. And then, doing exercise indirectly (via BMI) predicted lower HbA1c. However, only emotional stability had the significant total effect (Bootstrapping Percentile 95% CI=-.029 ∼ -.006) on HbA1c.
Conclusion: The present findings revealed that Big Five personality maybe predicted the glycemic control after 2-4 months via mediators. Evaluation of personality might be helpful in providing tailored patient education.
S. Yang: None. T. Lee: None. H. Hsu: None.
