Sociodemographic determinants of management behaviour of diabetic patients. Part I. Behaviour of patients in relation to management of their disease

We studied 300 randomly chosen diabetic patients to assess their behaviours in relation to management of their disease. The majority had very good compliance with regular periodic check-ups [97.0%], urine and blood screening for sugar [94.3% and 96.0% respectively], adherence to the prescribed medicines [78.3%] and foot-care practices [75.0%]. However, 35.3% and 39.0% had poor compliance with regard to checking their blood pressure and weight monitoring. Among smokers, 30.2% stopped smoking and 42.2% decreased the amount smoked after being diagnosed with the disease. Dietary compliance was either satisfactory or very good for most patients

Sociodemographic determinants of management behaviour of diabetic patients. Part II. Diabetics' knowledge of the disease and their management behaviour

We aimed to: describe the level of knowledge of diabetic patients about the disease, show the relationship between demographic variables [age, sex and education] and level of knowledge and reveal the relationship between knowledge and management-related behaviour of diabetics. We found that a majority of diabetic patients [90.0%] had poor knowledge about the disease, 83.7% had poor knowledge about the complications associated with diabetes and 96.3% had poor awareness of how to control the disease. The poor level of knowledge that diabetics have about their disease suggests that health care providers need to be trained in the areas of information, education and communication