fa آموزش بهداشت Health Education پژوهشي Original Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background and purpose</strong><strong>:</strong> Diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder which is caused by defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both .The most important factor in managing diabetes is self-care. Since diabetes self-care behaviors are multifactorial and these factors may directly or indirectly affect self-care, it is possible through the application of path analysis to estimate the direct, indirect and total effect of variables on self-care. &nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Materials and Methods</strong><strong>:</strong> The present study was cross-sectional, and according to the hypothesized model, the sample size was determined to be 500 patients<span dir="RTL">.</span> To collect the study data, five questionnaires were utilized. Path analysis was then conducted to investigate the effects of variables of the study on self-care behaviors. The analyses were performed using SPSS 16.0 and MPlus6 .The following goodness-of-fit were also used: &chi;2, RMSEA, CFI and SRMR test-statistics. P value 0.1 or less than 0.1 was considered statistically significant.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results</strong><strong><em>:</em></strong> The estimated model demonstrated a good model fit, (&chi;2= 24.5, p=0.22), (RMSEA=0.02), (CFI =0.92) and (SRMR=0.03).Total effect (p<.01), total indirect effect (p=0.08) and direct effect (p<.01) of duration of diabetes on self-care were significant. The increase in duration of diabetes has also resulted in an increasing level of self-care ability. The findings showed that the total effect of patient and doctor relationship on self-care was significant (p=0.01), but the total indirect effect was not significant (p=0.24). Patient-doctor relationship (p=0.01) as well as diabetes knowledge (p<.01) had also a direct effect on self-care.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion</strong><strong><em>:</em></strong> Despite the limitations, each six hypothesized variable leading directly to self-care behavior had significant effect. The study findings indicated that several factors affect self-care behavior which is the most important and most vital step in metabolic control in diabetic patients<span dir="RTL">.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"></p> Keywords: Self-care, Path analysis, Total effect 10 21 http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-525-2&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 Mohammad Ali Bigdeli 10031947532846004627 10031947532846004627 No Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Seyed Saeed Hashemi Nazari 10031947532846004628 10031947532846004628 Yes Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Soheila Khodakarim 10031947532846004629 10031947532846004629 No Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Hamid Brodati 10031947532846004630 10031947532846004630 No University of Medical Sciences Qazvin, Iran