Objective: to determine the factors associated with self-care practices in users with Diabetes Mellitus at the Indeco Health Center.
Method: quantitative, descriptive correlational, cross-sectional, two instruments were used, the first to measure the lifestyle in people with diabetes (IMEVID) and the test to evaluate self-care practices in this disease. The population studied was the 55 users diagnosed with diabetes.
Results: the predominant sex was of women with 85.5% and 14.5% in men; at the school level 41.8% have primary school studies, 25.5% have no studies; 61.8% are in a low economic income, in the lifestyle it was found that 65.5% have a regularly desirable lifestyle, 18.2% manifest undesirable behavior and 16.4% correspond to a desirable behavior. In the practices of self-care, 54.5% referred a good practice and 45.5% regular, the deficit of self-care was presented by 61.8% in the exercise, 3.6% for the care of the feet and 1.8% in the medical control. A significant association was found between sex and medical control (r = .030, p <0.05), place of origin and foot care (r = .000; p <0.05). With respect to self-care practices and lifestyle spheres, significant association was found in information on diabetes (r = .043; p <0.05) with therapeutic adherence (r = .013; p <0.05). , thus having a correlation between lifestyle and self-care practices (r = .011; p <0.05). Conclusions: the attitudes and habits evaluated directly influence a predisposing association towards self-care practices and therefore the maintenance of their health. Recommendations: The results of the study can be useful in nursing care to innovate and adapt the teaching methods based on a dialogue in a way that is understandable to people, considering that socioeconomic conditions are varied according to the region and corroborated by observation that the practice executed by the user with diabetes is adequate, besides generating the option to investigate this problem from a qualitative approach.