in the elderly. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of Orem’s self-care program on the adherence
to treatment among the elderly with type II diabetes.
Method: This study was a quasi-experimental intervention with control group which was done on 66
patients with type II diabetes. Data collection tools was a four-section questionnaire including demographic
information, examining self-care activities, examining adherence to treatment and in the fourth section
examining and recognizing Orem. Before the pretest administration, the educational intervention was
done for the experiment group and one week and one month after the intervention, the questionnaire was
completed by two groups. In this study data were analyzed using SPSS v.20.
Findings: the effect of intervention program was significant at the level of 5%. There was a significant
difference between the average score of pretest adherence to treatment among the elderly one week and one
month after the intervention (p=000). The comparison of mean scores showed that the score of adherence to
treatment is significantly better in one month after the intervention compared to one week after, and better
in one-week after compared to the pretest (p=000).
Conclusion: the present study shows that nurses can employ Orem’s self-care program and play an important
role in the adherence of patients with type II diabetes to their treatment.

Keywords: Diabetes, Elderly, Self-care