Abstract:
The purposes of this research were study the relationships and predictors between eating behavior, exercise behavior, medication behavior, health believe, health service utilization, social support, and HbA[subscript 1]C level. A random sample of 200 type ΙΙ diabetic patients was obtained though a purposive sampling from four central hospital in southern region. Data were collected using six questionnaires: eating behavior, excercise behavior, medication behavior, health believe, health service utilization, and social support. Questionnaires were tested for content validity and reliability. Cronbachs alpha coefficients the questionnaires were .67, .80, .60, .64, .67, and .83, respectively. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, pearsons product moment correlation and multiple regression. The major findings were as follows: 1. Eating behavior and exercise behavior of type ΙΙ diabetic patients in southern region were at moderate level and medication behavior at high level. Health believe factor in perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits , motivation and cofactor were at high level and perceived severity was at moderate level and perceived barrier was at low level. Health service utilization and social support were at high level. 2. Eating behavior, medication behavior, health believe factor, perceived benefits, motivation and health service utilization were negative significantly related to HbA 1C level. Exercise behavior, health believe factor in perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barrier , cofactor and social support were not related to HbA[subscript 1]C level. 3. Significantly predictors HbA[subscript 1]C level of type ΙΙ diabetic patients in southern region were health believe factor in perceived benefits (beta =.263, p is less than .05), eating behavior (beta =.193, p is less than .05) and medication behavior (beta=.143, p is less than .05). The predictive power was 16% of variance (R[superscript 2]=15.7 p is less than .05).