Knowledge of Diabetes Mellitus and Management Practices among Senior High School Teachers in Ghana

Background Educating teachers on diabetes mellitus is crucial to facilitate the appropriate care of the child with diabetes mellitus. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the knowledge deficits about diabetes among school teachers in Ghana (2) to determine the knowledge on diabetes management practices among Senior High School teachers. Methods A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out among 215 senior high school teachers from the western and central regions of Ghana. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires during the period August, 2015 to February, 2016. Results Majority of the teachers (97 %) knew that diabetes is as a result of increased blood sugar levels. Majority (81.8 %) of the teachers knew that DM can cause complications in other organs and only 20.0 %, 15.8 %, 7.5 % and 21.3 % perceived obesity, decreased physical activity, stress and consuming too much sugars and sweets respectively as risk factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Majority of the teachers reported television and radio as the main source of information for DM. Only 31 % knew the treatment for low blood sugar is to drink some sugar containing drink or eat food, but majority (75 %) also knew that exercise lowers blood sugar. The most important DM management practices reported by the teachers were to allow student to see the school nurse upon request, discussing with parent about student condition and school to provide diabetic training for teachers, student to have access to fluids and to have competency in using glucometer. DM management practices that were considered not important by the teachers were preventing diabetic student to take part in school excursions, preventing diabetic student from exercising at school, diabetic student to eat his or her meal anywhere in school, allowing student to perform self-injection of insulin, permission for student to check his/her blood sugar level in school and keeping sugar in class to treat low blood sugar. Conclusion Our study results indicate that teachers have limited knowledge about diabetes management and practices and therefore there is the need of diabetes education training courses for school teachers to enable them to provide adequate care for children with diabetes.