Donnah Bless B Lumanlan
Southern Philippines Medical Center, Philippines
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Introduction: Patient education is the cornerstone of diabetes care. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and find out if these factors are associated with glycemic control. Objectives: This cross-sectional analytic study aims to identify the demographic profile of the subjects and assess their level of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) towards diabetes mellitus (DM). It also aims to determine the association between the patientsâ?? KAP and glycemic control of DM among patients in a diabetic clinic. Methods: Type 2 DM patients were recruited using the convenient sampling method from a diabetes clinic. KAP were assessed using a 54-item structured KAP questionnaire and control of DM was evaluated from the most recent HbA1C levels. Results: A total of one-hundred sixty-eight patients (168) with T2DM participated. In this study, we found out that the level of knowledge, attitude and practices among patients following up in a managed diabetes center in a tertiary hospital is adequate achieving 56%, 66% and 91%. Good KAP is found in majority of females, above 60 year old, overweight, high waist-to-hip ratio, at least high school level, unemployed, with family history of DM, less than 10 years diabetic, those who attended DM classes, and without smoking history. However, these results were found not to be statistically significant except for educational attainment for knowledge domain, female gender for attitude domain and unemployment status for the practice domain. There was a strong association between knowledge and attitude, but not with knowledge and practice (P>0.05). No significant association was noted between good KAP and glycemic control. Other plausible factors like socioeconomic constraints and lack of resources to facilitate medication adherence must also be identified and addressed to achieve better disease control. This study also emphasizes that providing patient education through diabetes classes and the presence of an integrated multidisciplinary team is important for enhancing patient KAP.
Email: donnahblessmd@yahoo.com
