However, the intervention could not signifcantly
increase the patients’ perceived susceptibility and
perceived severity of diabetes complications. This
might be because they already had good perceptions
before joining the study. Out of the total scores
of 9 and 6 their mean scores for pre-test were 7.5
and 5.1, respectively. In addition, their perceived
benefts and self-effcacy in self-care management were
not signifcantly increased either. The results from
self-care behaviors suggested that they needed to
improve their eating behavior and foot care. Many
of them ate more rice than what is recommended
and did not do well in foot care. This could be
due to the fact that 58.7% of the participants had
insuffcient income and most of them were farmers
and unskilled workers, they needed more energy
to carry out daily hard work and had no time for
proper foot care. These can become a major barrier
to achieving behavioral goals23.