The process of self-management is, of course, initiated by the
diagnosis of diabetes. Many variables have shown some
relationship to self-management and these are presented in
Table 2 along with their identified sources in the literature.
They are grouped into five categories: individual, family,
social networks, interventions, and nature of illness. Of the
variables listed in Table 2, age, gender, motivation, cognitive
ability, skills, and knowledge have been linked repeatedly to
self-management.