RESUMEN
Background: Rates of diabetes in Kuwait are among the highest in the world.
Aims: To inform prevention initiatives, this study assessed diabetes knowledge, attitudes towards it, and personal behaviour relating to risk factors among the Kuwaiti population.
Methods: A cross-sectional knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices survey of 1124 people was performed between July and September 2015. Descriptive analysis and ÷2 tests were performed.
Results: Although most participants [94%] had heard of diabetes and 87% believed type 2 diabetes to be preventable, knowledge of risk factors was poor [family history [87%], age [44%], low exercise [10%], obesity [4%], diet [0%] and stress [0%]]. Dietary patterns in Kuwait were variable and, of concern, 42% of those with diabetes had been eating more since diagnosis. Lifestyle, particularly among Kuwaitis and people with diabetes, was sedentary 47% of participants walked < 20 minutes per day.
Conclusions: Despite the importance of diet and exercise for diabetes prevention, significant gaps in public education clearly exist. At a policy level, much remains to be done and intensified intersectoral programmes are required to improve public awareness
RESUMEN
Our aim was to assess students' preparedness for the smoking cessation role after a teaching module on tobacco cessation and to assess the relationship between smoking status and preparedness. Pharmacy students attended a 4-hour module on the role of health professionals in smoking cessation based on the rx for change training program. Two years after the first introduction of the module, a questionnaire on preparedness and smoking status was filled in by 64 pharmacy students who had attended the module and 243 students from other health sciences that had not been exposed to the module. Preparedness scores for the smoking cessation role for pharmacy students were significantly higher [mean = 19.5, n = 63] for the nonsmoking pharmacy students compared to other nonsmoking students in medicine [mean = 16.2, n = 149], dentistry [mean = 16.1, n = 40] and physical therapy [mean = 14.9, n = 16] [p = 0.009]. The smoking prevalence was 3% among all females and 31% among all males. Smoking students were significantly less likely [p = 0.031] to agree that it is their professional responsibility to help patients quit smoking. Significant and long-lasting differences in students' perception of preparedness for the smoking cessation role based on exposure to a short teaching module were demonstrated. Furthermore, our results support previous findings that smoking compromises attitude towards helping smokers to quit