Knowledge and Expressed Practices Regarding Self Care Management of Diabetes Mellitus among Younger and Older Adults with Type-II Diabetes Mellitus in Government Hospital Gurugram, Haryana, India

Background: Self-care in diabetes has been defined as an evolutionary process of development of knowledge or awareness by learning to survive with the complex nature of the diabetes in a social context. Diabetes self-care activities are behaviors undertaken by people with or at risk of diabetes in order to successfully manage the disease on their own. The aim of the study was to assess and compare the knowledge and expressed practices regarding self-care management of diabetes mellitus among younger and older adults with type-II diabetes mellitus in selected hospital of Gurugram with a view to develop an educational booklet. Methodology: A quantitative non � experimental comparative design was used to collect data from 100 samples with Type-II Diabetes Mellitus in Civil Hospital, Gurugram, Haryana using convenience sampling technique. The subjects were grouped in younger adults (50 samples) and older adults (50 samples). A self-structured knowledge questionnaire and expressed practice checklist was developed for data collection. The collected data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Information booklet was prepared on various aspects of self-care management of Type-II Diabetes Mellitus and was distributed among the study subjects at the end of the study Results: The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Younger adults had overall mean score of knowledge as 10.22 � 1.54 whereas older adults had overall Mean score of 9.18 � 2.43. Hence, younger adults had more knowledge than older adults which was statistically significant at 0.05 level of significance. The overall Mean score of practice of younger adults was 16.40 � 2.76 whereas the overall Mean score of older adults was 17.26 � 2.30. Hence, older adults showed more effective expressed practices than younger adults which was also found statistically significant at 0.05 level of significance. There was significant correlation between knowledge and practices of older adults whereas it was not found significant among younger adults. Conclusion: Though the knowledge of Type-II Diabetes Mellitus among older adults is lower than the younger adults but older adults showed more effective expressed practices than younger adults.