Knowledge of Diabetic Patients Regarding Diabetes Mellitus Visiting Tertiary Care Hospital of Lahore

Abstract

Objective: The objectives of this study were to find out the knowledge regarding diabetes
mellitus and to describe the sociodemographic and disease related characteristics of patients
visiting the tertiary care hospital of Lahore.
Material and Methods: It was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted on 214 patients
visiting diabetic center of Jinnah hospital Lahore. Patients fulfilling inclusion criteria were selected
using consecutive sampling technique and their responses were filled in a pretested semistructured questionnaire. Knowledge regarding risk factors, disease transmission, symptoms of
diabetes, diagnostic test, complication and curability of the disease, glycemic control and
symptoms of hypoglycemia was find out and was graded as 'good' if more than 70% of patients
gave correct responses and 'poor' if less than 70% of patients gave correct response for each
attribute. Data was entered, cleaned and analyzed using Epi Info 3.0.
Results: Regarding sociodemographic and disease related characteristics , about 170 (79.4%)
patients were more than 40 years old and 108 (50.5%) respondents were female. About 154
(71.9%) respondents had total monthly family income less than 20,000 rupees. Out of 214
respondents, 198 (92.5%) had family history of diabetes, 124 (57.9%) respondents had been
diagnosed with diabetes for more than 5 years while source of information for majority of the
respondents (63.6%) was health personnel. Knowledge was good regarding only disease
transmission while it was poor regarding 7 out of 8 disease factors i.e. risk factors, symptoms of
disease, diagnostic test, complications, completecure, glycemic controls and symptoms of
hypoglycemia.
Conclusions: It is concluded from this study that knowledge of diabetic patients are poor in
majority of disease factors,Health educational interventions are needed for improving knowledge
of patients regarding diabetes.