A study of knowledge, practices and treatment seeking behaviour among diabetic patients

Abstract

The world prevalence of diabetes among adults (aged 20-79 years) will be 6.4%, affecting 285 million adults, in 2010, and will increase to 7.7% and 439 million adults by 2030. Between 2010 and 2030, there will be a 69% ABSTRACT Background: Adherence is a complex process and patients' decisions about how to manage their medications are likely based on economic, physical, psychological, and social considerations. Identifying factors associated with adherence would be of value for family physicians in focusing strategies to enhance patient adherence to antihypertensive medications. The objectives of the study were to knowledge, practices and treatment seeking behavior of patients with diabetes. Methods: Present study is a hospital based cross sectional study using interview technique carried out in the Medicine department of Malla Reddy hospital among 64 diabetic patients. Data was collected in predesigned, semi structured questionnaire. Information on socio-demographic profile, knowledge about diabetes, practices about diabetes, treatment seeking behaviour related to diabetes and quality of life was collected and recorded. Results: Overall knowledge of patients as assessed by these seven questions was very good. The overall treatment seeking behavior was found to be very good among these patients. It is observed from above table that majority of patients were following practices like wearing shoes regularly and dietary advice. Only 50% of patients had got their eyes checked in the last one year. However, practices such as checking blood sugar levels, blood pressure levels and consulting the physician regularly were not followed, as they should be. Conclusions: Knowledge of most diabetic patients was good. However, they were not regular with their checkups. The overall treatment seeking behaviour was in line with modern medicine as well as diet. Diabetic patients were not extensively affected by the disease regarding quality of life. Most patients were able to carry out daily tasks. Still, there is a need of health education as many patients do not have adequate knowledge.

Awareness of Type 2 diabetes mellitus in rural population of Mangalore, South India

“…Similar findings were reflected in a study by Sawant et al where awareness of hypoglycemia was found to be 56.3%. [9] Only 22.6% of the study subjects were aware of the complications of diabetes, and among them, more than 50% were aware of ocular complications and 43.1% knew about renal complications and delayed healing of wound. Similar findings were reflected in a study by Murugesan et al in the urban population of South India where only <30% of the subjects were aware of renal, ocular, and neurological complications.…”

“…Studies have shown that there is still an inadequate awareness about various aspects of diabetes among the general public and also there is also a lack of knowledge and awareness about the existing interventions in prevention and management of its complications. [8,9] Hence, with this background, the current study was conducted with an objective to assess the awareness of Type 2 DM among the general population and diabetics residing in the rural area of Mangalore, South India.…”

Consensus on potential interventions for improving glycaemic control among patients with type 2 diabetes in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo: a Delphi study

“…Raising the awareness of the population will also contribute to acceptable health seeking behaviours [ 45 ]. Participants pointed out that people in the community do not read much, unsurprisingly because most are not highly educated; they are more attracted to plays on television.…”