The relationship between potential categories of self-management behavior and disease knowledge level of gout patients based on K-means clustering analysis

Objective To explore the potential categories of self-management behaviors of gout patients, analyze the relationship between each category and the disease knowledge level, and provide a basis for formulating targeted intervention strategies. Methods A total of 402 patients with gout were selected by convenience sampling. The general information questionnaire, the gout patients’ self-management assessment scale, and the knowledge level measurement questionnaire were used in this study. K-means cluster analysis was used to identify the potential categories of self-management behavior. Results The score of self-management behavior of gout patients was (142.30 ± 29.53), which could be divided into four categories: high self-management-knowledge adequacy type (28.6%), low self-management-knowledge deficiency type (15.4%), moderate self-management-insufficient transformation type (30.8%), and good self-management-knowledge deficiency type (25.1%). There were statistically significant differences in age, residence, number of acute flares in the past year, serum uric acid (SUA) level and disease knowledge level among different categories ( p < 0.05). Conclusion There is heterogeneity in self-management behavior of gout patients, and there are differences in disease knowledge level among different types of patients. Medical staff should implement hierarchical and precise intervention based on category characteristics.