Difficulties in daily life and the association with self‐care ability in adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Japan: A cross‐sectional study

Aim To identify the unique contents of difficulties experienced in daily life among adult type 1 diabetes mellitus patients and to determine how basic characteristics and diabetic-related self-care agency are associated with difficulties in daily life. Methods This study used two surveys: "Difficulties in Daily Life," which was a questionnaire developed for this survey and "Instrument of Diabetes Self-Care Agency." These two measures were then used with demographic information for cross-sectional analysis. Result The final sample included 321 type 1 diabetes mellitus patients. Difficulties in daily life were composed of four factors: "Difficulties in diseases disclosure," "Difficulties accommodating diabetes into daily life," "Difficulties in employment or continuing education" and "Lack of knowledge of diabetes." The instrument of Diabetes Self-Care Agency was found to be associated with all four factors of difficulties in daily life. In addition, sex and diabetes duration were shown to be important predictors.