BACKGROUND Diabetes self-management education (DSME) is defined as a systematic intervention involving active participation of the individual in self-monitoring of health parameters and/or decision making using knowledge and skills. The goal of DSME is to create opportunities for people with diabetes to be informed and motivated to continuously participate in effective methods and methods of self-monitoring of diabetes. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality of DSME provided by primary care physicians to people with diabetes mellitus. METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 primary care physicians. The quality of diabetes self-management training provided by physicians was assessed on a personal scale of 39 Likert questions obtained from the American Association of Diabetes Educators in seven areas of diabetes self-monitoring. The Cronbach's reliability coefficient for each domain/subscale was ≥ 0.7. The data were analysed using an independent selective t-test and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS More than half of the doctors provided "inadequate quality" of diabetes self-management in all areas. Doctors had the highest average score in the domain of "drug intake" (4.46±0.61). Average scores in the "problem-solving domain" (3.52±0.63) and "being active domain" (3.46±0.75) were low. The quality of DSME provided by physicians was not related to any of the characteristics of the physician. CONCLUSIONS The quality of doctors' communication on DSME in this study was suboptimal. Most adequately informed cases of diabetic behaviour associated with self-management have been associated with reduced risk factors and an orientation towards disease. Thus, training of primary care physicians in diabetic self-management is recommended because of the key role that these doctors play in managing diabetes.