Knowledge and Awareness of Diabetes Mellitus Disease among High School Students in King Abdulaziz Military City, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the highest countries in the Middle East for the incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM). Data are lacking regarding knowledge and awareness about DM among school students in Saudi Arabia.
 AIM: The study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and awareness of DM among high school students within the military city, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
 METHODS: A descriptive type of cross-sectional study was conducted among 278 high school students applying a convenience sampling technique. The sample size was calculated using OpenEpi, Version 3. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the high school students (male and female) after official communication with the school’s dean. The level of knowledge and awareness was categorized into “adequate” and “inadequate” as per each topic/question, and also as per each response/answer. Data entry and analysis were carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Pearson’s Chi-square tests were performed to explore if there is any significant association between the knowledge and awareness level of the high school students and their (i) gender, (ii) age, and (iii) level of education.
 RESULTS: More than half of the high school students had adequate level of knowledge and awareness about DM in terms of symptoms (67.3%), complications (56.5%), monitoring method (62.6%), lifestyle modifications (63.7%), frequency of routine eye check-up (63.3%), important factors for blood sugar control (79.1%), treatment (56.5%), and management of hypoglycemia symptoms (57.6%). On the contrary, a large number of the students showed inadequate level of knowledge and awareness about the disease in terms of definition (80.6%), major causes (57.9%), effect of high blood pressure (51.8%), frequency of routine blood pressure check-up (55%), rationale of a regular urine test (58.3%), medication for DM (66.9%), and duration of medication (69.8%). However, no significant associations were found between the knowledge and awareness level of the high school students about the definition or major causes of DM and the (i) gender, (ii) age group, and (iii) level of education of the students.
 CONCLUSION: The level of knowledge and awareness of a considerable number of high school students regarding DM was inadequate, and some of them possessed various misconceptions about this particular chronic disease. Health authorities and school authorities in the region should offer special efforts to improve the level of knowledge and awareness of the students through regular health education campaigns.

Knowledge and Attitude of School Students About Diabetes Mellitus in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia

“…Male and young-age participants dominated a Jordanian study [20]. Overall, this study found that participants had limited knowledge about DM, which is similar to the results of previous studies in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and China, which indicated that school students had a general lack of understanding regarding DM [17,21,22]. This finding should be considered by policymakers and local authorities because, despite the development of information-dissemination channels such as the internet and social media, their levels of knowledge about common chronic diseases such as DM are still below expectations because there are not any school sessions or workshops on healthy eating and disease prevention.…”

“…The present study aimed to assess knowledge and attitude levels about DM among school students in the west of Saudi Arabia. Although Saudi Arabia is one of the Middle Eastern nations with the highest incidences of DM, there is a lack of knowledge about DM among Saudi school students [17,19]. The sample we looked at represents students at different educational levels before entering a university.…”

“…After conducting a literature review of related studies [15,17,18], the study's researchers developed a questionnaire that was used to gather data from schoolchildren of both genders' knowledge and attitudes regarding DM. With the assistance of a three-member expert panel (internal medicine and family medicine), the pertinent questions were designed, grouped inside the questionnaire that was pertinent to the research purpose, and prepared in Arabic as a 33-item questionnaire.…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Diabetes Mellitus Among University Students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

“… 15 Alenazi et al (2020) mentioned relatively better (62.6%) knowledge scores in young school children regarding DM. 16 Quite interestingly, it was observed that females had significantly better knowledge regarding DM general knowledge, risk factors, signs and symptoms, control and management, complications, and total knowledge scores. A Chinese study reported inadequate knowledge of diabetes and its related factors among college students.…”

Diyabet Risk Farkındalığı: Bir Metropol Örneği

“…Alenazi ve ark. (2020) üniversite öğrencileri ile yaptığı araştırmada diyabet farkındalık düzeylerini alt boyutlara (Diyabetin tanılanması, diyabet sebebi, diyabet belirtileri, diyabet komplikasyonları) indirgemiş ve özellikle katılımcıların %80,6 sının diyabeti tanımlanmasında yetersiz olduğunu yani farkındalıklarının olmadığını bildirmiştir (31).…”