Abstract

A COMMUNITY BASED STUDY TO ASSESS KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES IN THE GLYCAEMIC CONTROL OF DIABETIC PATIENTS IN DAKSHINA KANNADA

Abhishek Pradhan, Maxwel Roshan Dsouza*, Aiswarya Utaman, Ahammed Dilshad M. A., Apekhsa Rai and A. R. Shabaraya

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM), which is linked to high morbidity, is a serious public health concern worldwide. Diabetes raises the risk of several microvascular and macrovascular conditions that enhance patient suffering and morbidity, including coronary artery disease, stroke, retinopathy, nephropathy, and foot amputation. The effective management of type 2 diabetes, a metabolic illness, necessitates not only the use of medicinal treatments but also active patient awareness and suitable lifestyle changes that might enhance glycemic control. The current study was prospective and used a pre-developed and validated questionnaire to examine knowledge, attitude, and practises among diabetic patients during a 6-month period. A total of 150 patients from various parts of the Dakshina Kannada district participated; of these, 64 men and 32 women, each with a family history of diabetes, were among the participants. During the pre-intervention trial, participants were questioned using a questionnaire, and then educational interventions were given using pamphlets and verbal counselling. It was followed by a post-intervention research involving the same participants after a 3-month period. The study findings indicated that only one-third of the diabetic patients in the study sample had satisfactory knowledge before the intervention. This greatly rose once the teaching programme was put in place, which resulted in the acceptance of the study's aims and goals. The implementation of the current intervention study was effective in improving patients knowledge of type 2 DM in all of its areas. Moreover, the intervention was identified as the main positive predictor of the knowledge score in multivariate analysis, thus confirming its independent and significant positive effect. This success could be attributed to the fact that the programme was tailored to their findings and its content had direct application to their care practices.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, knowledge, attitude, practices, lifestyle, interventions.