OBJECTIVES: Family affects the perception of diabetes self-management in patients with diabetes. Family-related questionnaires have been used to assess family function, but the Brief Family Assessment Measure (Brief FAM-III) has not been used previously in a diabetes population. We aimed to determine whether the family function is associated with glycated hemoglobin levels and quality of life as potential predictors of diabetes self-management.

METHODS: An exploratory study of patients with type 2 diabetes and incipient complications and their relatives using the Brief FAM-III, a self-report questionnaire comprising 3 scales assessing family function according to different perspectives: a general score, a dyadic relationship score and a self-rating score.

RESULTS: We included 127 patients: 72.4% males, mean age 65.23 (SD=10.26) years; glycated hemoglobin levels, 6.9% (SD=0.9%); diabetes duration, 9.1 (SD=0.6) years; and body mass index, 30.8 (SD=0.5) kg/m2. Mean FAM-III scores for the 3 scales were 41.7 (SD=1.0), 41.5 (SD=0.9) and 38.5 (SD=1.1), respectively. Correlation coefficients were -0.06 (p=0.37), -0.09 (p=0.18) and -0.12 (p=0.06), showing no significant correlation between scales and glycated hemoglobin levels levels in the 3 perspectives before and after adjustment for confounders. Family function correlated with burden of diabetes at 0.14 (p=0.02), 0.24 (p=0.0003) and 0.16 (p=0.01), respectively, and mental health at -0.21 (p=0.0007), -0.23 (p=0.0005) and -0.25 (p<0.0001), respectively.

CONCLUSION: The results of our study suggest that in patients with type 2 diabetes, family function does not predict the level of glycemic control. However, we found an association among healthy family function, low burden of diabetes and strong mental health, issues that are important for the patients' quality of life, compliance with lifestyle factors and diabetes self-management.