The Ecological Approach to Self-Management in Diabetes

Abstract

Whether our lives are directed by events around us or events within us, ``not in our stars, but in ourselves,'' is of concern in ethics, aesthetics, law, religion (the Old Testament of laws and the New Testament of ``faith as a mustard seed'' within us), and, of course, behavioral science, biology, and health. The present paper emphasizes the importance of contexts – ecological, social, organizational, community, policy – in health and health behavior; describes peer or social, community, and policy approaches to addressing contexts; and considers all of these with reference to the challenges of diabetes prevention and management.