Informatics Publishing Limited

Abstract

METHODOLOGY: A prospective - observational study on diabetic knowledge was done in Inpatient and outpatient Department of a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore for a period of 6 months. The patients (inpatients and out-patients) suffering from Type-2 DM of either sex who were aged 35 years or above and satisfied the study criteria such as patient who are diagnosed with type2 DM for more than 1 year, who are on either parentral or oral hypoglycemic were enrolled prospectively for six months. The patient, clinical, medication and socio-economic data were collected. Different levels of education considered were: Post-gradates, graduates, schooling and illiterate. Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Testing scale was given to the enrolled patients to self-administer the scale in patient waiting area. Each answer was dichotomously scored. Accordingly, each correct answer is awarded a score of one while every incorrect or unsure answer was awarded a score of zero. The total score was categorized as: Score > 17= Better Knowledge, Score 11-17 = Average Knowledge and Score < 11 = Poor knowledge.

RESULTS and DISCUSSION: Totally 400 patients (Males 61%, Females 39%, mean age+/-0.6176) suffering from Type-2 DM were enrolled. Majority of the patients were graduates (198) 50% followed by patients with school level education (116), 29% , illiterate patients were (69), 17% and least number of patients were post graduates (17) 4%. Among the study patients, majority (205) 51.25% had poor knowledge followed by 182 patients (45.5%) who had average knowledge. However, 3.25% patients had showed better knowledge. This indicates that majority of the patients were with poor knowledge which resembles previous study conducted in South Africa that shows 66.9% of the population studied passed the diabetes knowledge test with more than 50% score².

CONCLUSION: Majority of the patients suffering from Type-2 DM have poor knowledge about their disease irrespective of their education level. This urges the need for educating diabetic patients.

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Abstract

Methodology: The study protocol was approved by the hospital human ethical committee. The patients (in-patients and out-patients) suffering from Type-2 DM of either sex who were aged 35 years and above and patient diagnosed with Type 2 DM for more than one year who were either on parenteral or oral anti diabetic medication treatment were prospectively enrolled for six months. The patient, clinical, medication and socioeconomic data were collected into specialized patient profile form. Different levels education considered were: Post-gradates, graduates, schooling and illiterate. The patient medication adherence was assessed using Morisky Medication adherence scale. Each answer was dichotomously scored. Accordingly, each correct answer is awarded a score of zero while every incorrect or unsure answer was awarded a score of one. The scores were totalled and categorized as: Score 0 = High adherence, Score 1-3 = Moderate adherence and Score > 3 = Poor adherence.

Result and Discussion: Totally 450 patients (Males 61%, Females 39%) suffering from Type-2 DM were enrolled. Mean age of the patients was 61years. Majority of the enrolled patients were graduates (198) 50% followed by the patients with basic level of school education( 116) 29% , and (69) 17% were illiterate and least number of patients were post graduates (17) 4 %.

Among the patients who were assessed for their medication adherence, majority (219) (54.75%) had poor adherence followed by 31.5% patients who had moderate adherence. However, (13.75%) patients had high adherence. This indicates that majority of patients were not adherent to their medications. Research has shown that patients with diabetes mellitus have one of the lowest medication adherence rates at 65% to 85%.Factors that could influence the patients adherence were assessed and were able to find with four clear causes included forgetfulness (64.25%),feeling better (75%),feeling worse(79.25%) and inconvenience (61.75%).

Conclusion: Majority of the patients suffering from Type-2 diabetes mellitus have poor medication adherence.

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