Objective  To examine the status of self-efficacy and to explore association of self-efficacy with glycemic control among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients in Shandong province, China for providing evidences to the implementation of self-efficacy based empowerment education in community T2DM patients.

  Methods  We conducted a questionnaire survey and fasting blood glucose (FBG) measurement among 2 250 urban and rural T2MD patients recruited in four municipalities of Shandong province with stratified multistage random sampling from August to October, 2017. The Chinese Version of Diabetes Empowerment Scale-Short Form (C-DES-SF) was used to measure the patients′ empowerment and FBG detection was used to evaluate glycemic control. Pearson correlation analysis and multivariate linear regressions analysis were used to analyze correlations between the score of patient empowerment and FBG values.

  Results  Totally 2 160 T2DM patients completed the survey and the response rate was 85.7%. For all the participants, the mean score of self-efficacy was 3.99 ± 0.64 and the mean FBG was 8.02 ± 2.79 mmol/L. The score of self-efficacy was reversely correlated with FBG level (r = – 0.05, P < 0.05). Linear regression revealed a significant partial regression coefficent for the correlation between the score of self-efficacy and FBG level (β = – 0.28, P < 0.05) after adjusting for gender, age, and number of family member.

  Conclusion  The promotion of self-efficacy is helpful to glycemic control among T2DM patients and empowerment education should be included as an essential components of diabetes education programs in future among community T2DM patients.