Perceived Functional Social Support and Self-Management Among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background/Objectives: Social support may help sustain daily diabetes self-care, but evidence on which support dimensions matter is inconsistent and Saudi data are limited. This study examined whether perceived functional social support, overall and by dimension, was associated with the frequency of self-reported self-care activities. Methods: In a descriptive cross-sectional study, 213 adults with type 2 diabetes were recruited by convenience sampling at a university hospital diabetes center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (February to July 2023). Self-care was measured with the eight-item Arabic Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) and perceived support with the Arabic Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS). Multiple linear regression was adjusted for age group, sex, marital status, education, and diabetes duration (n = 212 with complete SDSCA data). Results: Participants reported self-care at a mean of 2.80 (SD 1.37) days per week, and foot care was the least frequent domain (2.18 days). The mean MOS-SSS score was 61.5 (SD 22.5). Total support was independently associated with self-care (B = 0.100 per point, 95% CI 0.037 to 0.164; p = 0.002), uniquely accounting for 3.6% of the variance; the full model, including covariates, explained 22.9%. Each dimension was associated with self-care when entered alone, but none remained significant when all four were entered together. Conclusions: Greater perceived support was modestly associated with more frequent self-reported self-care. The four dimensions were highly intercorrelated (r = 0.63 to 0.78), so their independent contributions could not be distinguished. These single-center findings are hypothesis-generating: they identify social support and foot care as priorities for local service evaluation, and whether strengthening support improves self-care or clinical outcomes requires longitudinal and intervention studies.