INTRODUCTIONGlobal reports, in the year 2010, stated that diabetes accounted for 12% of the total health expenditure or around 376 billion dollars, which is expected to cross 490 billion dollars by 2030. Due to lack of resources and limited infrastructures, many developing countries face an hurdle to manage the epidemic of diabetes. As per the recent report of international diabetes federation, 415 million individuals are diabetic globally and it is likely to peak around 642 million by the year 2040, and worldwide, every 1 in 11 individuals are found to be detected diabetic, but unfortunately 46.5% of them remain undiagnosed and three-fourth of them live in low-and middle-income nations with 5 million of global deaths being currently attributed to diabetes. [1,2] Majority of the people with diabetes fall in the age group of 45-64 years in the low economic countries. This productive group is expected to drive the economic engine of the country to achieve the required international development goals. Along with the reduced productivity, diabetes tends to further impose a high economic burden on nation in terms Background: As an emerging epidemic of the 21 st century, diabetes would threaten to overwhelm the health-care system in the coming years posing a major challenges to patients and national economies. Currently, 415 million adults are found to be diabetic which is likely to cross 642 million by 2040. Awareness and health-seeking behavior are important in the reduction of burden of the disease and its long-term complications. Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess the awareness of Type 2 diabetes mellitus among the general and diabetic population in the rural community of Mangalore. Materials and Methods: A Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in rural population among subjects aged 35 years and above. Based on the prevalence rate of 16.6% by Rao et al., 226 subjects were interviewed by systematic random sampling method, and among them, 64 were found to be diabetic at the time of the survey. Results: Of 226 persons interviewed, 28.8% were aware of symptoms, 31.9% were aware of risk factors, and among them, majority were aware of increased intake of sweets in association with diabetes, and 49.6% were aware of warning signs of hypoglycemia. Only 22.6% were aware of complications of diabetes. Mean awareness score was 21.23 among diabetics than compared with the general population, 17.07 (P < 0.05). Overall awareness of diabetes among the subjects was found to be <50%. Conclusion:The study highlighted the low awareness status in this population for which there is a need for an effective health education program in the community in prevention and long-term control of diabetes.

Background: Globally, around 425 million adults are victims of diabetes with increased prevalence being noted in low and middle income countries. Diabetes was seventh leading cause of death leading to 1.6 million deaths in 2016 (WHO report). Management of diabetes is multifaceted which includes diet, physical activity, screening for complications and medications. Adherence to pharmacotherapy plays an important role in glycemic control. Hence, this study was done to assess the magnitude of treatment adherence and its associated factors among type 2 diabetics.Methods: A community based study was done on patients with type 2 DM in the rural and urban population of Bengaluru. A simple random sampling technique was followed. Medication adherence was assessed using 8 item Morisky's treatment adherence scale.Results: A total of 250 subjects were interviewed, among them 59% were male and 41% were female. The mean age of the subjects was 60.93±10.1 years. The mean treatment adherence scores was 25.9±3.1 years. Among the 250 diabetics, 62% were adherent and 38% were non adherent to anti diabetic medications. Forgetfulness to take medications was one of the reasons for non-adherence with mean scores of 3.12+0.6.Being illiterate, labourers, aged above 60 years, obesity, frequency and multiple dosage was found to be significant factors for non-adherence (p<0.05).Conclusions: Adherence to anti diabetic drugs was found to be 62%. Increased age, illiteracy, occupation, BMI, frequency and multiple doses of drugs were significant factors responsible for medication non adherence. There is a need for reinforcement of health education and motivation for diabetics to improve their medication adherence.