To develop an assessment tool for education and follow-up for type 2 diabetes patients related to their characteristics, a structured literature review was conducted. The method of the review was by key words related to self-management/self-care for type 2 diabetes taken from the database for the past 10 years of MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Japan Medical Abstract Society. One-thousand one- hundred and sixty-two articles were obtained from MEDLINE, 860 from CINAHL, and 691 from the Japan Medical Abstract Society. Research designs were then examined, based on the ADA (American Diabetes Association) Evidence guideline (2002) evidence level. As a result, 71 articles, of which 20 were domestic, were retained. Eighty-six factors were found statistically significant, and were categorized in groups under the headings “knowledge/education", “psychological aspects", “level of satisfaction", “personal factors",“therapy/treatment", “income/insurance", and “family/relationship". Factors/characteristics lead toselecting interventional strategies. However, their overall relations have not been examined yet, whichsuggests that these need to be tested to develop an assessment tool which leads to an effectiveintervention program.