Is lack of patient knowledge a cause of poorly controlled diabetes mellitus?

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is a chronic debilitating disease. A large percentage of Pakistani population suffers from this disease and its consequences. Awareness regarding the disease and its management is poor. Aim: To evaluate the awareness of diabetic patients presenting at Services Hospital regarding diabetes. Study design: Observational cross-sectional case-series study. Settings & duration: Department of medicine Services hospital, Lahore, from 01-07-2020 to 31-12- 2020. Methodology: We interviewed 100 diabetic patients who presented to the OPD/ER of the hospital. All the participants were selected randomly. A simple questionnaire was used to record the demographic details of the patients as well as their response to a series of 13 questions. The knowledge of the participants was taken to be good if they were able to answer at least 8 or more of the questions correctly. Results: Overall, a total of 100 adults were interviewed. The median age of the study population was 52.06 years with standard deviation of 13.49 years. There were 46 females and 54 males. Only 30% of the patients had sufficient knowledge regarding the disease and its complications. When stratification was done there was no significant association with any variable. Conclusion: There is a lack of knowledge among the diabetes regarding their disease. Even education from doctors is not helpful in this regard. Once patients are aware of the disease and its complications the glycemic control improves markedly. Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Poor Control, Patient Knowledge