Original Articles KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES REGARDING SELF-CARE MANAGEMENT AMONG DIABETICS VISITING MEDICAL OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT OF FATIMA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, LAHORE

Abstract

Background:

Diabetes Mellitus is one of the major chronic diseases which has become a public health problem worldwide. The complications of diabetes can be reduced by proper self-care knowledge and practices among diabetics. The objectives of this study are to assess the knowledge and self-care practices among patients having diabetes type 2 and its relationship with sociodemographic factors in of medical outpatient department of Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore.

Material and methods:

This was a cross-sectional survey. The study was conducted in the Medical Outpatient Department of Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore from 12th February 2019 to 26th September 2019. By using non-probability purposive sampling, 220 patients having type 2 diabetes fulfilling the inclusion criteria were selected. A pre-tested questionnaire was filled after taking written consent from them and data were analyzed in SPSS version 20.

Results:

Out of 220 respondents, 55.7% have belonged to the age group 40-54 having 64% females. The overall knowledge about self-care among diabetics was good in 44%, satisfactory in 49%, and poor in 7% of the respondents. Whereas the overall practices among the diabetics were good at 24.5%, satisfactory at 60%, and poor at 15.4%. There was a significant association between self-care knowledge and self-care practices (p-value=0.032) and only income has shown a statistically significant association with the overall knowledge (P-value: 0.000). Regarding knowledge about physical activity, 87.7% were aware of its importance and about 95.9% had the knowledge that anti diabetic medicines are to be taken regularly. However, only 27% participated in thirty minutes of physical activity and 85.5% took the anti-diabetes medicine over the past seven days before the interview

Conclusion:

About half of the respondents have satisfactory self-care knowledge and one-fourth have poor self-care practices. Among the sociodemographic factors, only income has a statistically significant association with self-care knowledge.