Résumé
Objective: the objectives of this study were to find out the knowledge regarding diabetes mellitus and to describe the sociodemographic and disease related characteristics of patients visiting the tertiary care hospital of Lahore
Material and Methods: it was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted on 214 patients visiting diabetic center of Jinnah hospital Lahore. Patients fulfilling inclusion criteria were selected using consecutive sampling technique and their responses were filled in a pretested semi structured questionnaire. Knowledge regarding risk factors, disease transmission, symptoms of diabetes, diagnostic test, complication and curability of the disease, glycemic control and symptoms of hypoglycemia was find out and was graded as 'good' if more than 70% of patients gave correct responses and 'poor' if less t an 70% of patients gave correct response for each attribute. Data was entered, cleaned and analyzed using Epi Info 3.0
Results: regarding sociodemographic and disease related characteristics, about 170 [79.4%] patients were more than 40 years old and 108 [50.5%] respondents were female. About 154 [71 .9%] respondents had total monthly family income less than 20,000 rupees. Out of 214 respondents, 198 [92.5%] had family history of diabetes, 124 [57.9%] respondents had been diagnosed with diabetes for more than 5 years while source of information for majority of the respondents [63.6%] was health personnel. Knowledge was good regarding only disease transmission while it was poor regarding 7 out of 8 disease factors i.e. risk factors, symptoms of disease, diagnostic test, complications, complications, glycemic control and symptoms of hypoglycemia
Conclusions: it is concluded from this study that knowledge of diabetic patients are poor in majority of disease factors. Health educational interventions are needed for improving knowledge of patients regarding diabetes