Knowledge regarding Diabetes Mellitus and its management among those with diabetes in South India

Abstract : BackgroundMany studies have been conducted throughout the world to assess patients knowledge and attitude about diabetes. It has been found that patients knowledge regarding the treatment and complications of diabetes were deficient. However the level of knowledge could be different depending on the setting from where they obtain treatment. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among the adult people who are suffering from diabetes for more than six months and getting treatment from the rural and urban secondary level hospitals of a Medical College. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge regarding diabetes and its management among those with diabetes and to compare the level of awareness between rural and urban population. The study was aimed also at comparing the knowledge regarding diabetes among people attending the hospital based diabetic clinic and those getting treatment from mobile clinicgeneral OPD.Findings The subjects who attended the diabetic clinic had a higher knowledge score(mean score 23.42, SD 6.26) than the group who attended the mobile outreach clinicgeneral OPD to get their treatment(mean score 19.18, SD 5.28).This difference was statistically significant (t value 4.049, mean difference of score 4.244, p value .001).There was no statistically significant difference in knowledge among the rural(mean score 21.43, SD 5.86) and urban inhabitants(mean score 21.25, SD 6.47) (t value .164, mean difference of score .183, p value .870).InterpretationIt was found that the overall knowledge of diabetes among the study population was good. There was no statistical significant difference found in the knowledge among the rural and urban inhabitants. After adjusting all other factors it was found that, subjects who were getting treatment from the mobile clinicgeneral OPD and who were less educated had poor knowledge than the others. Keyword : D i a b e t i c , K n o w l e d g e , R u r a l , U r b a n , Diabetic-clinic,Mobile-clinic