Abstract

Objectives Self-care is a major factor in managing diabetes. This study aimed to determine the self-care status of Iranian patients with diabetes and to estimate the percentage of self-care in these individuals through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods In this systematic review and meta-analysis 53 domestic articles published in Farsi and English were evaluated. We conducted database searches in domestic and foreign databases of Scientific Information Database (SID), MagIran, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Pub Med, and Scopus with no time limit. Data analysis was performed in Stata version 12 using meta-analysis method and the random effects model. Results A total of 50 articles (53 groups) with a sample size of 9565 were systematically reviewed. The percentage of self-care in patients with diabetes was reported to be 48.86 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 43.79–53.94). According to the results, the percentage of self-care score was higher in patients with type I diabetes (55.53) when compared with patients with type II diabetes (49.26). Conclusions Since patients with diabetes obtained only half of the self-care score and given the importance of self-care in controlling and treating diabetes, it is necessary to perform actions to improve self-care such as benefiting from health facilities, and social and family support.